


Tales of Carbuncle Farm

by Lukas17



Category: Final Fantasy XV, Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Asexual Character, Asexual Lunafreya, Asexual Noctis, Asexual Prompto, Humor, Inappropriate Humor, Multi, farming au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-05-26 19:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 58,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15007616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lukas17/pseuds/Lukas17
Summary: Luna, Noctis, and Prompto may not have thought whole "let's run away" plan all the way through. But either way they had a farm, some seeds, and no where else to go so they might as well try to make Stardew Valley their new home.





	1. Welcome to Stardew Valley

The bus ride was a fairly uneventful three hours. Prompto tried to read a book or be productive on the ride, but he mostly spent the time playing games with Luna while Noctis slept in the back. The scenery outside the bus was beautiful in the springtime. Large, green hills and beautiful patches of wild flowers. Prompto thought that maybe he should take up painting. He should have the time for it soon. Once they got everything settled and split the work down he’d have time to take up a new hobby. Maybe even two.

He turned to wake Noctis up when they past the road sign for Pelican Town. This gave Noctis a full fifteen minutes to be half awake before they arrived.

They got off at the stop where a woman with red hair was waiting for them.

“Hi, I’m Robin the local carpenter. Mayor Louis sent me to fetch you and show you to your new home.” She cheerfully announced. “He’s over at your new home getting things set up.”

“Oh really, that’s nice of him.” Prompto said, not at all liking the thought of some random person scoping out his new home.

“Yeah, it’s nice living in a town full of nice people.” Luna said, completely missing how weird that was.

“We try to take care of one another here. I’ll show you the way.”

He and Noctis ended up taking the lion’s share of baggage while Luna gawked at the beautiful scenery. Prompto gave her his camera to take pictures with but she, unfortunately, had her thumb in front of the lens so he’d probably have to come back to reshoot them.

They walked about twenty minutes until finding their plot of land at the end of a dirt road. It was exactly as Prompto expected. Lots of overgrown weeds and rocks littering the front yard. His grandfather hadn’t even visited the plot of land in the last twenty years of his life and Prompto held on to the title for another ten before he asked Luna and Noctis if they wanted to move.

“It’s… something.” Luna said.

“Don’t look so down. I know it doesn’t look so great now, but there’s some good soil under those rocks.”

From the inside of their new home a man in a green sweater came out. That was alarming. Prompto didn’t expect for a strange man to be in his home. He’d have to check to make sure the man didn’t leave anything unsavory.

“Ah, are these the new farmers?” The man asked as if he wasn’t a stranger who was in a home he wasn’t invited into.

“Yes these are them.” Robin replied. “Luna aaaaand…”

“Prompto.” He replied.

“So you must be Noctis.” She pointed to Noctis.

“Welcome, I’m Louis. The mayor of Pelican Town.” He announced. He walked down the steps that led to their smallish home. “It’s not every day we get new people, it’s good to see Terry’s old home get lived in again.”

“Though it’s looking a little too old.” Robin commented.

“Bah, don’t listen to her.” The mayor protested. “She just wants you to buy one of her upgrades.”

“No I don’t. I’m sure you’ll all be right at home after you make it your own is all I’m saying.” She said. Which still sounded like she wanted them to pay her to make it their own but he refused to say it.

“Take your time settling in kids, and make sure to visit town tomorrow if you’ve got the energy for it.”

When their “guests” were far enough away Prompto headed on inside to get a look around.

It was a small place with big cobwebs and dust everywhere. There was no kitchen or even a microwave so they’d have to head on into town tomorrow anyway to get food. In one corner there was a fireplace, in another there was a single bed, and in a third corner to the left of the fireplace there was an old, ancient TV with the giant back.

“We can spruce it up tomorrow.” Luna said cheerily. She deposited her luggage on the ground and went to shake out the sheets of the bed. A terrifying amount of dust launched into the air at the motion and they all ended up coughing for a minute.

Prompto helped Luna take the sheets of the bed outside where they broke off a branch from one of the overgrown trees and beat out the worst of the dust. There were thankfully no bugs or rodents living in the home, but Prompto had a feeling that was because of the recently placed repellants and traps rather than any sort of magical anti-rodent spell.

The sun set by the time they redressed the bed and they all laid down in a pile on the mostly clean sheets.

“Well we’re off to a great start.” Noctis said sarcastically.

“We just have to put a little elbow grease in.” Luna said. “It’ll be up and running in no time.”

Prompto fell asleep pretty quickly after that bold declaration. During the night Luna tossed and turned a bit which woke him up, but despite that he felt well rested in the morning. The morning sunlight did not make things inside seem any better, so they pretended to ignore it all and headed outside.

The box near their home contained a note from the mayor. In it he left from farming tools and several packets of parsnip seeds.

“That was nice of him.” Noctis said.

“Yep…” Prompto reluctantly agreed. He tried to find a hint of foul play, but the tools simply looked old. They left that alone for the time being and headed to town.

The only general store in town ended up being a shop called Pierre’s and he did not sell prepared food. They ended up heading to the Stardrop Saloon for their morning menu which was fairly limited. Three coffees, four stacks of pancakes, and a pile of fruit. Noctis took his coffee and loaded it with sugar and cream before coating an entire stack of pancakes with butter and maple syrup. Luna spread some jam on her pancakes and Prompto cut his up to mix with some fruit. Noctis went back for a second stack and he let Luna have the rest of the fruit.

“Should we get more seeds?” Luna asked.

“Maybe…” Prompto didn’t like that idea. They only had five hundred gold, the local currency, and very little experience.

“Yeah, we should get them while we’re here right?” Noctis said.

That’s how they ended up in Pierre’s little shop. Pierre introduced himself before they were all interrupted by a man in a blue vest who aggressively offered coupons for another store which ended with a stampede out of the shop.

“I can’t sell anything that low.” Prompto heard Pierre mumble. “I’d be selling at a loss.”

Prompto felt for the man, but there wasn’t much he could do besides let Noctis and Luna choose what to buy. They both bought a variety of vegetable seeds, but Noctis went out of his way to purchase a single packet of tulip seeds.

“I didn’t expect you to go for the flowers Noctis.” Luna said.

“It’s going to be my own little side project.” Noctis said. “I shall name it: Tulip!”

“Ooooo, I can’t wait to watch you baby grow Noctis.”

They headed back to the farm where they got started on the difficult stuff. Luna went inside to start cleaning up the home while he and Noctis began the back breaking process of chopping down trees, cutting down old weeds, and breaking up the giant rocks that littered the front of their home. Noctis broke away for one moment to plant his tulip seeds near the steps of their home where he gingerly set the seeds into the ground.

He and Noctis cleared out a square and planted all of the parsnips, garlic, and few potatoes into the ground in thin rows then painstakingly watered them with the crappy watering cans that leaked. During their work they collected some clay, wood, sap, and a couple of random seeds that they then went back and planted. The stones collected from breaking rocks were then stacked on the side of their home. By the end of all that the sun had set, they’d cleared off a small square for farming, and Luna had finished up inside.

It wasn’t perfect. Luna had never cleaned before and it clearly showed in some areas where the dirt had just been moved around and not actually cleaned. But she really did put her back into it and Prompto didn’t want to be the person to inform her that she had missed the area under the bed completely.

“Nice job Luna.” Noctis said. He immediately collapsed onto the bed, rolled over, and passed out.

“...I wish I could be like him sometimes.” Luna said. She then held up a small, wicker basket to him. “A lady got us some bread and cheese as a housewarming gift. You want some?”

“Sure.”

They sat outside on the deck as the warmth of the sun faded and a chill hung in the air. Luna made sandwiches out of the bread and cheese which ended up being the best things Prompto had eaten in a long time.

“We made a smart choice coming here.” Luna said.

“I think it’s a little early to be saying that.”

“No it’s not. It’s peaceful out here.”

He laughed, “My cousin said the country isn’t peaceful it’s just that they wait longer for bigger explosions.”

“Well that’ll be nice then. Gives you time to recover.” She patted him on the shoulder. “You worry too much Prompto, this’ll be fun.”


	2. Meet The Wizard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna, Noctis, and Prompto have settled into their new home just fine, so now's the time to make some friends.

Luna and Prompto woke up early a few weeks after moving in to find that the parsnips had finally grown. They immediately got to work pulling each individual parsnip from the ground and tossing them into their bags. At first the work was nice and she felt fine, but she quickly felt a shooting down her back as she bent and pulled parsnips from the small patch. The sun was just peeking over the horizon when they started and it had quickly risen high in the sky when they’d finished, and neither of them took a break. Once finished they dumped each and every parsnip into the bin for their Mayor to collect that night. It was only then that Noctis chose to wake up and head outside.

“Whoa, what happened to the plants?” Noctis asked while standing near the tilled dirt.

“We harvested the vegetables.” Prompto emphasised the dreaded v-word. “You know farmers are supposed to get up early, right?”

“Does it matter? I mean, do the parsnips really care if they come out of the ground at twelve instead of six?”

“You will when you get a sunburn on your entire face.”

“The sun can’t hurt me.” Noctis said dismissively.

Luna saw Prompto roll his eyes, and she did have to agree that it was fairly bold thing to say. The only person to burn faster than her was Noctis. Prompto was the only one she wouldn’t neg about sunscreen, but that was because he actually tanned. She would’ve pointed this fact of Noctis’ inferior genetics if the mailman hadn’t walked up their farm. Noctis ran to collect the mail and complete his first task of the day.

They watched Noctis thank the mailman, then carefully open the letter so he didn’t rip the envelope. He glanced over it for all of ten seconds before running towards them.

Noctis didn’t say anything about the contents of the letter. He came up and planted a hard kiss, that felt more like a headbutt, right on her forehead. He did the same to Prompto’s chin before racing off with a: “Gotta do something important I’ll make us a lot of money, byyyyyeeeee!”

He’d raced off the farm without any other explanation.

“...What was that about?” Prompto asked her.

“I don’t know, he’s your boyfriend.”

“Why does he have to be my boyfriend? Why can’t he be yours?”

“Prompto I am a hard working farmer, I have no time for relationship,” She dramatically flipped her hair over her shoulder, “My work is all I have.”

They took turns taking a shower, which was a fixture not actually in their home. Instead a tall, wooden box had been installed on the back of the house and a hook up installed above it to hold the hose up. When they arrived there hadn’t even been a curtain, and she insisted that they all take the bus a town over to purchase one and some soap. She quickly scrubbed the grime off her body then laid out under the sun while Prompto showered so her hair dried.

After all of that they were both very ready for lunch so they headed into town for another meal at the saloon. Gus’ evening menu had a little more to choose from, but she did miss home cooked meals. Being limited to a select number of items was a little depressing, and she had wanted to learn how to cook. And eating out all the time rather than consuming their own produce was growing expensive.

“We should go ask Robin about her upgrades,” She swirled her fry in a little cup of ranch. The ribeye sandwich it came with had been good, but she’d ideally not eat it for quite a while.

“I doubt we can afford one right now.” He replied.

“Well we can find out what we need right? We can ask her if she can build a kitchen.”

“You planning on cooking often Luna?”

“You planning on having that salad every day for the rest of your life, Prompto?”

He pushed the tomato through the oil and vinegar. “Fair point.”

They paid their tab then made the rather long trek up the mountain towards where Robin’s cabin was supposed to be. There wasn’t an address, almost none of the residents of Pelican Town had addresses, so she was certain they had gotten lost several times. This made finding her house a welcome surprise.

Robin’s house was large and beautiful, which Luna expected from a carpenter. In the front a young man in black was working on his motorcycle. He didn’t acknowledge either of them so they let themselves through the door that had an open sign hung on the doorknob.

“Welcome!” Robin chimed. She set down the tools she was using to whittle at a small statue. “Have a nice walk up?”

“Yes, it was very scenic.” She replied. “We were wondering what kind of improvements you’d designed for our home?”

“Looking to upgrade?” Robin ducked under the counter then returned with a big binder. She flipped through until she found the label with their address then opened it up to the first extension. “This is what I was thinking. A modest kitchen with a nice, big window. I noticed you didn’t have either with your current blueprints.”

“Ooooo.” Luna didn’t know much about blueprints, but she loved the sound of a kitchen and a window that was big and clean.More room, a freshly made food, sunlight coming through in the morning. It was so nice of Robin to put all this work in already to help them decide on buying it. “How much?”

“14,500 gold.” Robin replied. “But if you give me 450 planks of wood I will take off 4,500 gold.”

“Oh.” She thought back on the parsnips they’d harvested. There was no way those few parsnips would be worth that much.

“Thank you ma’am.” Prompto said. “We’ll call you if we decide to go with that.”

“Okay, have a nice walk down.”

It was a long, sullen trek back down the mountain. Prompto wrapped his arm around her shoulder half of the walk down, but it did little to comfort her. They’d worked hard, and she hadn’t expected to just be handed everything, but they were so far away from that expansion it felt like they would never get there.

“That was nice of her, to have a quote ready for us.” She said in an attempt to lift her own spirits.

“It sure was.” Prompto didn’t sound convinced of that, but she ignored it and focused on walking down towards town.

They picked up sandwiches, two salami and a meatball, for dinner then headed home expecting Noctis to be back, but when they arrived he wasn’t there. They waited until six before deciding to start on their dinner without him then snuggled under the bed covers to watch a kids show on the public network.

There were no sign of Noctis until nine at night when he arrived proudly carrying three freshly caught fish. The fish were so freshly caught that they dripped fish-water-juice on the almost cleaned floor.

“Hey guys, guess what I got!” Noctis announced.

“Where did you go?” Prompto asked.

“I went fishing with Willy! He gave me a line and showed me a nice spot outside of his shop!”

“You went fishing the entire day?” She demanded. Noctis seemed to catch on to his faux pax, and backed away when she jumped out of bed and stalked over towards him. “You just leave without telling us to laze the day away? That’s low Noctis!”

“I didn’t laze the day away Luna!” He held the three fish out to her like an offering. She refused to take it. “I caught us dinner, I thought you liked fish?”

She sighed. It was hard to accuse Noctis of any wrong doing since he didn’t have a mean bone in his body, there were too many stupid bones in his body for there to be room.. “We can’t eat them Noctis. We don’t have a kitchen.”

“We could eat them as is. It’ll be like a caveman sashimi.”

Prompto reached over and took the fish from Noctis’ hand, “How about we leave them in the box for Mayor Creeper to take?”

“Prompto we can’t just leave a bunch of fish in a regular box. They’ll smell.” Noctis protested.

“Well then the mayor can’t miss ‘em.” Prompto headed outside and laid the three down into the box next to the parsnips. He came back inside and wiped his fishy hands on a random towel.

“I swear Prompto if we wake up to rotting fish corpses in there I’m making you clean it.” Noctis protested.

They piled into bed that night same as every night. Noctis fell asleep first and his snoring kept her from sleeping for a good twenty minutes, but she was slowly becoming used to it. In the morning she was the second one up, coming to right as Prompto was pulling on a pair of socks to check the mail.

A pile of gold was left in the mailbox right next to the receipt. There was a handful of gold left for the parsnips and another smaller pile of gold for the fish Noctis had caught. The total was significantly more than what she expected for a few parsnips and some tiny fish.

“Should we branch out? Get some cauliflower?” She asked. Luna didn’t know if it would be beneficial at all to branch out or if they should stick to what worked.

“Yeah we should branch out. We should also start thinking about making preserves jars and stuff. Maybe when we have enough money we can buy the supplies?”

They threw back ideas, but there were few avenues she felt comfortable enough taking up. She didn’t think she could take care of animals nor did they have the means of cooking and selling food. The conversation soon took a negative turn, however, when they arrived at Pierre’s to see it closed.

“Closed on wednesdays,” Prompto sighed, “Guess we’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

“What should we do until then?”

“I dunno. Explore town?”

“I suppose. I’m going to go up north then, I thought I saw a park.”

“Okay, I wanted to look through the forest near the farm. Let’s meet back at the farm at three okay?”

They synced watches before heading out. She took a leisurely stroll up towards the park, which was more like a play area next to a decrepit, old building. A decrepit, old building that Mayor Lewis was standing outside of. She tried to hang back towards the playground and not disturb him.

“Ah, farmer Luna. Funny to see you here.” He said.

So much for that. “Nice to see you too Mayor Lewis. What brings you out here?”

“Just contemplating this old building. JojaMart wants to purchase it, but I’ve forbidden it unless they get one more membership card holder.”

“Okay…” That was an odd stipulation, but she figured her had his reasons. “Why not spruce it up if you don’t want to sell it?”

“Don’t have the money.” He complained. “This used to be the town community center, it’s where all people of Pelican Town could come to if they needed work or resources. Now it’s a pile of wood. Would you like to come inside?”

“Sure.” She said reluctantly.

The insides weren’t much better than the outsides. The windows were covered in gunk and half of the floor was too dangerous to walk on from the splinters and nails. In the corner an old fish tank was too dangerous to go near due to the shattered glass littering the floor surrounding it. But none of that caught the Mayor’s eye quite like the small dirt hut in the other corner.

“Hmm, what is this...? I guess the kids snuck their way in. I’m going to have to update the newsletter so parents can warn their kids to stay away.”

Luna thought that was a very smart idea, she truly did, but she got distracted when a tiny, green apple poofed into existence behind the mayor. The mayor caught on to where her eyes were focusing on, but when he turned to look it disappeared.

“What are you looking at?”

“Oh, uh, I thought I saw something,” She tugged at the end of her hair, embarrassed.

“Don’t worry, this place is probably infested with rats,” He walked turned his back to check under a piece of floorboard for the supposed rat, therefor missing the second apple that popped up just behind him.

“Ah!” She yelled which made the mayor jump. He straightened up and scanned the floor, but by then the apple was once again gone.

“Saw another one did you.” He laughed, “Ah, I suppose that’s a good reason to leave. Wouldn’t want you to get ill from spending your time in this eyesore.”

Lewis left quickly, but she made some pitiful excuse to stick around so she could find those creatures again. The main room got a thorough picking over, then the pantry and the crafts room. She nearly died after she tripped while searching in the management office and the basement was too dark to see anything. None of these rooms revealed a magically appearing apple, but she did find a small, gold scroll in one of the rooms. The writing was strange, and she couldn’t decipher it so she kept it in the spot she found it. After some more fruitless searching she left and decided to try and forget about it all.

It was eleven when she arrived back home. WIth nothing to do until her boyfriends came back she chose to chop down a few trees, smash some rocks, and make an attempt at a preserves jar. They’d found the simple blueprint under the bed, but it took being creeped out in an old community center for her to attempt building one.

She worked on it until three when Prompto arrived just as she was finishing up the top. It wasn’t the most beautiful jar, but it stayed together when she picked it up and set it down.

“Niiiice.” Prompto said. “You actually made one. We should buy some stuff that would make good preserves.”

“Do you think people would purchase pickled cauliflower?” She joked.

“Rich people will pay out the nose for artisanal stuff Luna. We’ll just need to put organic, fair-trade in front of it.”

She wanted to rebut that, but she suddenly found that she couldn’t. Her last meal in Tenebrae before sneaking away had been non-gmo, organic rhubarb jam on whole wheat waffles with hand squeezed orange juice. She never thought that all of that stuff could’ve been made by a couple of incompetent farmers aiming to make more on their produce, but she supposed that half of the joy of running away was finding out something new.

“Let’s try to make more of these.” He continued. “Maybe make a keg or two too?”

“Sure.” It was at this point that she wanted to tell Prompto about the walking apples, but she held off. It was probably just her imagination. They had better things to worry about.

“Saw Noctis down at the river. He’s having a lot of fun fishing all day.” Prompto said as they headed on inside to watch the T.V.

“He’s gonna come back when he starts getting lonely. Or ask us to come down and watch him fish.”

“Probably. We’ll tag team it. Just sit behind him and grunt when he talks so he doesn’t know it.”

They laid in bed and watched Livin’ Off the Land until they both felt tired. It was an hour long special on how to build a scarecrow that Luna genuinely found interesting. She took mental notes then fell asleep very early afterwards.

The next day there only major source of income was Noctis’ fishing. It was a little lighter than the day before since Noctis didn’t catch a catfish, or really any fish of note, but for Luna the cash wasn’t nearly as interested as the mysterious letter she got in the mail.

I heard of your encounter the other day. Come to my tower if you wish to learn about these creatures further.

Wizard

Luna contemplated throwing the letter away and ignoring it. She did not want to go to some strange man’s home to talk about hallucinations. Unfortunately, she was a sensible person who knew better than to ignore something so strange.

“Guys.” She said. Prompto was counting how much they had while Noctis sat at the table trying to wake up. Neither of them turned to her but she knew she had their attention. “Yesterday in the community center I saw little creatures. I thought I was imagining them but this man says I wasn’t. Would you go with me to speak with him?”

Noctis looked very confused. “Uhm… when did you go to the community center?”

“Yesterday while you were fishing.”

“Oh…”

“Will you go or not?”

“We’ll go with you.” Prompto said, using that voice that he tended to use when he was trying to prevent her and Noctis from spiraling into a long debate as their political background dictated. “We should get new seeds planted first before things get too hot.”

All three of them quickly made the walk down to Pierre’s store. His daughter, Abigail, was up helping shelve seeds, but they didn’t stick around to chat too long. After filling up a bag with parsnips, potato, and kale seeds they headed back to the farm to plant each and every one in similarly long rows. The row closest to their home was full of potatoes then kale and finally parsnips. They watered each row with their broken watering cans until Prompto felt they were finished. At a quarter past noon they left their farm and traveled down through the forest to The Wizard’s home.

He hadn’t given any directions, but Prompto had explored the area the day before and knew where the tower was. It wasn’t too far of a walk for them, so they arrived quickly without getting lost.

They knocked twice, and when there was no answer Prompto suggested they leave. But then Noctis turned the handle to find it unlocked and after some debate they both convinced Prompto to enter.

The inside was not as dark or creepy as they expected. It was instead brightly lit with beautiful, hardwood floors and tall ceilings. A circle was carved into the floor at one end and a T.V stood near a wall. At the back there was a long bookshelf with a door in the center separating it into too. And in the center of it all stood The Wizard.

“So you got my letter.” He dramatically announced. “I am M. Rasmodius also known as The Wizard, Seeker of the arcane truths, mediary between the physical and ethereal, master of the seven elementals, keeper of the sacred cha-... nevermind.”

“Hello Mr. Rasmodius.” She replied nervously. The man was strange looking with a long robe and a big pointy hat. The outfit was so garish and chitzy that she thought the man was either tricking them or crazy.

“I have long foreseen your arrival.” He said. “Here let me show you something.”

Rasmodius waved his arms twice towards a circle engraved in the floor nearby. A flash of light and then the image of one of the creatures she saw was projected just a few feet away.

“Behold! You’ve seen one of these before.”

“Yes! See guys, that’s what I saw.”

“That’s not an apple that’s a blob Lu.” Noctis said.

“It looks kinda cute though.” Prompto said.

“They call themselves the Junimos.” The Wizard interrupted. “A race of nature spirits, they, unfortunately, refuse to speak with me.” He waved his arms and the image disappeared. “I don’t know why they’ve made their home in the center, but you have no reason to fear them.”

“You weren’t able to read the scroll either?” She asked.

“What scroll…?” Prompto muttered.

The Wizard seemed confused by this too. “There was a scroll? I will have to investigate this myself.”

In a flash of light he was gone, leaving them alone in his home.

“... Luna I think we should leave.” Prompto said. “This is freaky and I thought we all ran away to get away from stuff like this?”

“Yeah, we sh-...”

The front door opened and closed, The Wizard was back. They all immediately shut their mouths.

“I found the scroll you spoke of.” He said. “It was an obscure language, but I managed to decipher it. It read: We the Junimo are happy to aid you. In return we ask for gifts of the valley. If you are one with the forest then you will see the true nature of the scroll.”

“Cool.” Noctis said. “I guess we need to, like, go camping…”

“It is not so simple…” The Wizard began pacing across his apartment. “One with the forest…. Hmm.”

He approached his cauldron. “My cauldron bubbles with items of the forest can you smell it?”

“You bet we can.” Prompto said. “But I’m not going to drink that.”

“You must drink this. Let the essence of the forest permeate your body.” The Wizard filled a cup with the green juice and handed it to her.

Luna had major doubt about this, but one of the benefits of her bloodline was that she could expunge corruption from herself and others. If it was poisoned then she’d easily be able to save herself and her boyfriends. So she closed her eyes and took a big gulp.

It tasted bitter and earthy, which was at least what she expected. She handed it off to Noctis who quickly took a sip to get it over with before shoving the glass into Prompto’s hands.

“Luna please don’t make me drink this.”

“Prompto!”

He looked as if he were about to cry, but he soldiered on by plugging his nose and downed a mouthful. His skin took on a green hue after the fact, but he kept the contents down.

“Go forth and right what’s wrong.” The Wizard said before teleporting them all to his front porch. A quick test of the door showed that it was locked.

They were halfway home when the silence was finally broken.

“I can’t believe you made me drink some crazy dude’s protein smoothie.” Prompto complained.

“If we can figure out what these creatures want then it’s all worth it right?” She said.

Prompto didn’t look convinced. “It better, especially since I’m probably going to have the runs after this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love these three. They all get into so much trouble on their own.


	3. Down to the Mines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They'd settled into the farm life well all things considered, but Noctis was starting to grow a bit bored.

Noctis woke up to Prompto and Luna running around the farm screaming at the sky. It was a confusing display that he chose to ignore by immediately turning over and going back to sleep. Ten minutes later he was woken up again by them stumbling into the house sweaty and mumbling to themselves. Noctis finally accepted that he would not get back to sleep again, so he pushed himself up and out of bed.

“What’s up?” He asked. Luna collapsed onto the table and sighed.

“Stupid crows ate one of our kale plants.”

“Oh…” He didn’t know crows liked kale. Hell he didn’t even know they were growing kale. Noctis was pretty content to letting them handle the farm so he hadn’t been keeping up with it.

“The rest are fine though.” Prompto said. “We should make a scarecrow when we’ve got the chance. What’re you gonna do today Noct?”

Noctis shrugged, “Fishin’ probably.”

Luna laughed, “I don’t know why you’d ask that Prompto, he’s always fishing.”

“Don’t make fun of it Lu, it’s been lucrative some days.”

“But you’re going to fish yourself sick. Why not take a break and help us around the farm?”

He looked outside at the several rows of sprouts still growing. He didn’t fancy going out there even in the cool, early morning to dump water on a bunch of plants. But he also didn’t like sitting alone for eight hours waiting for fish to bite. Maybe one day wouldn’t be too bad.

“Okay… What do you want me to do?”

He followed them outside towards the patch. The vegetables were growing fairly well and the parsnips were already poking from the ground. Everything was laid down in perfect, neat lines with a small sign labeling what was growing. Noctis couldn’t imagine that there was much else to do.

“Alright Noct, time to water all of these.” Prompto handed him one of the leaky watering cans. He then walked over to the small, pond-like body of water at the edge of their farm and filled it up. Luna did the same so he followed their example.

The can leaked like crazy. He couldn’t finish a row before having to go back, turning what he thought should have been, at most, an hour long task into three hours. Just when he thought they were done Prompto and Luna had him pulling parsnips from the ground, an action so tiring and painful that he thought his spine would run away from his body. When that was done they emptied the parsnips into the box for the mayor to collect that night.

“Holy shit this is terrible.” Noctis knew he was whining, but he couldn’t help it. He collapsed onto the ground next to his tulip plant and was made even more depressed when he saw that it hadn’t yet bloomed. He’d been watering it every once in a while when he got back from fishing. How much longer would it be?

“Sorry Noct but it had to get done.” Prompto said. He collapsed on the ground next to him. “But after you shower we can go get some food.”

“Today is meatball subs at the saloon.” Luna said.

That did lift his spirits. Normally he just ate whatever he caught from the sea. Sometimes Willy would share a sandwich with him, but he typically didn’t move far from his fishing spot. A nice, hot meal was a rare occurrence that motivated him to quickly shower and change.

Gus knew Luna and Prompto by name, and he was able to guess that Noctis was their boyfriend. He quickly came over with extra big glasses of water then took their orders. He and Luna ordered the sandwiches and Prompto got a personal pizza. Gus then went into the back to prepare their orders. It was a nice change, eating with Luna and Prompto rather than sitting on the pier waiting for a fish to bite. They were the only three people there and thus it felt more intimate than a public business ought to be.

“After lunch let’s buy some more seeds.” Prompto said. “And we should maybe do some foraging?”

“What’s that?” Luna asked.

“It’s where you search the wilderness for valuable stuff. Like food or something.” Their food came and Noctis dug into his order with a gusto he didn’t expect of himself.

“Isn’t that stealing?” Luna asked.

“No, no one owns the berry’s that grow from the bushes in the forest.” Prompto said. He dabbed at the oil on top of his pizza with a napkin.

“How do you know what’s valuable though?”

Prompto shrugged. “You don’t, but whatever we find will help us out either way.”

“How about we fix the watering cans?” Noctis suggested. “I mean, it’s really difficult watering everything since they leak.”

“It would be helpful.” Prompto said as if it were the first time he thought of that. “I guess we could ask that Clint guy if he can repair them?”

“Who?”

“The blacksmith. Pierre told us about him.”

“Oh, cool. I didn’t know they still had blacksmiths.”

“...Well…”

They finished and paid up then went over to Pierre’s for even more parsnips. Noctis didn’t understand why they insisted upon purchasing only parsnips, but he let them make the decisions. Afterwards Luna decided she wanted to get a headstart in planting them all then attempting another preserves jar so he went with Prompto to the blacksmith’s shop.

“Well normally what people do is they bring me the item and then the raw materials and then I do the work.” Clint said. “I do have ore for sale, and I can technically smelt it, but I typically don’t for small orders.”

“Why do people do that?”

“Because it’s expensive to both purchase the raw materials and have the upgrade. I have a lot of outside contracts, so I’d be working all day making the raw materials if I did that. Sorry, but that’s just how it is.”

“Where do most people get the materials then?” He asked.

“You can pay people to go into the mines and collect it for you, then you can pay to borrow a furnace. Some people will just purchase the material from a nearby town but it can take a while to arrive.”

“The mines?”

“Yeah the ones up the mountains behind Robin and Demetrius’ house.” He said. “I wouldn’t suggest going in there if you’re not an experienced adventurer.”

“I see.” He said. “Well thank you.”

Noctis took Prompto’s hand and dragged him from the shop before he could ask any more questions. This was obviously a confusing choice, one that Prompto immediately questioned by yanking his hand out of Noctis’ grip.

“What’d you do that for?” He whined.

“Because we could totally go into that mine and get ore for ourselves! Screw paying someone else to do it.”

“Noct I thought you emptied your armiger?”

“I mean, I did.” He had forgotten about that. “Weren’t there some swords in the house?”

“Yeah, but they’re old and dull Noct. Just like the house.”

“Well that’s fine.” He could already imagine it. Finding loads of gold ore would be a lot more satisfying then spending all day fishing. If he played his cards right he could do that and keep his fishing something he did when he wanted to have fun.

“Noct this is stupid and if I die because of you I will haunt you forever.”

“That’s fine. I like having you around.”

Prompto rolled his eyes at the flirting, but he followed Noctis back to the farm to grab the swords and then up the mountain to the mines.

The entrance didn’t seem too scary. Sure they left the brightly lit outside for a dark, dank mountain, but nothing made weird noises or moved so that was reassuring. There were torches, but not nearly enough to mimic lights inside a home. Just enough to make it easier to see if a spider was nearby.

They went down the first ladder expecting the worst, but found nothing on the first floor besides stones and two copper ore veins. From that they received five ores total, some coal, and a whole bunch of stone. Noctis would’ve left all but the ore behind, but Prompto kept them for projects on the farm.

The second floor was much of the same. They climbed down to mine a bunch of stone, coal, an earth crystal, and some more ore. On their way to the ladder they encountered a single slime that was vanquished quickly and easily.

“I don’t know why everyone’s scare of this place,” He said as they scaled down to the third floor. “It’s not that bad.”

“Noctis I will kill you for jinxing us.”

“It’s fine Prom, we’ll leave if it gets that bad.”

It got that bad. It got that bad real quickly.

They hit the jackpot on the third floor. It was covered in copper veins and they went to the fourth floor loaded with ore, geodes, and two more earth crystals. But the fourth floor was where their luck ended. Several slimes ganged up and chased them both around the floor. This lead Prompto to run into a giant bug that slowly backed him into a corner. Noctis dispatched his slimes then helped Prompto out of his jam and they both ran around until they found the latter leading to the next floor.

On the fifth floor they found no ore and no monsters. Instead a single chest sat in the middle and at the far end there was a pool of water that had large, white fish swimming under its surface. He would have loved to fish it, but he had a giant gash across his arm and Prompto’s leg was dripping blood on the stone so he’d have to save that for latter.

“Hey there’s an elevator down here.” Prompto said. The light was on and when Prompto pressed the button the doors opened up. Noctis thought it was as good a route out of there as any. He searched through the chest to find several swords, all basic but new and sharp. He grabbed them and they took the elevator to the top.

“That was a terrible experience.” Prompto’s breath came is short bursts. “I freaking hate this.”

“We got the ore.”

“But we need to get it smelted.”

“Yeah well -!” That was a good point, Noctis had forgotten all about that. “We’ll figure it out.”

They stumbled back home where Luna was only slightly sympathetic to their plight. She wiped off the blood and helped put pressure on Prompto’s wound in place of bandages. Noctis realized that they had gone down on a spur of the moment and without anything to deal with injuries. They’d have to pick up some the next day if they wanted to do that again.

“What did you find down there?” She asked. Prompto reached into the bag and showed her all the ore and stones they collected.

“Good, you know Clint stopped by and dropped off a blueprint for a furnace an hour ago,” She grabbed the blueprint from their kitchen table and showed it to them. Noctis didn’t understand blueprints at all so he let Prompto take it and look it over.

“We collected thirty-two ore.” He said. “We can make it and then use it to smelt two.”

“But Clint wants five to do the repair.”

“Which means we’ll have to go down again…” Noctis looked at Prompto to see that Prompto was absolutely not thrilled with that idea.

“Okay, we’ll build it and go down next week.” Luna said.

That was a surprising statement. “You want to go?”

“Sure. You two clearly need some help.”

Noctis did not protest this. Sometimes it was easier just not to get into it because when he and Luna disagreed they tended to disagree until Prompto put a stop to it or until they came to a truce. He just sat back and let Luna do what she wanted. It took her two days of work to finish the smelter and after that she and Prompto worked together to smelt two copper bars which were stored next to the wood they’d chopped down. He fished two days then helped them harvest parsnips and plant new ones.

In that time they received a letter from a person calling himself Mr. Qi. He promised a mountain of gold for them if they made it to level twenty-five. This promise made Prompto nervous and he almost called the whole thing off in favor of ordering the ore from Clint, but Noctis convinced him otherwise. They worked hard for their money, and he didn’t want to see it all wasted by paying insane prices for ore they could get themselves. He considered that a wise and mature decision.

The day after they sent off the latest harvest Noctis saw Prompto’s shoulders soften and his demeanor seemed less stressed. Neither he nor Luna handled the money, which was a truce they both easily agreed to. He knew that they had started with very little, but didn’t know how little. Prompto also knew the most about farming since his parents worked in the agricultural sector. Ultimately running away like they did would not be possible without Prompto. One day he and Luna should do something to thank him.

Luna went to grab food before they all went out to work the fields. Prompto hijacked the TV to watch the weather and then a fortune teller who stated that the spirits were very pleased that day. Noctis tried not to roll his eyes as he ate his apple.

More parsnips. Luna roped him into planting them before they left for the mines. He didn’t much enjoy the actual farming part of their venture, but it had to get done and today it was easier to do knowing that in the afternoon they’d take another chance down at the mines.

Once all the seeds were planted and water Noctis handed Prompto and Luna their swords and they all headed down towards the mines. Prompto had made a few energy bars from the seeds they’d found after cutting down trees and Noctis felt better prepared with the first aid kit now snugly in his backpack.

They found that the elevator was still running so they nervously took the rickety thing down to the fifth floor. From there they scaled down to the sixth floor. It was a calm area where they found several ore veins and a geode.

“This seems alright.” Luna said as they scaled down to the seventh floor. “A little creepy though.”

“There were giant bugs and slimes down here the last time we came Lu.” Prompto said. “Be careful.”

They swung their pickaxes at the rocks on the seventh floor until they were attacked by a rock crab. Noctis swung his sword several times attempting to dispatch it, but every swing it managed to hide behind it’s stone-like hide. It was only when Prompto timed his attack and swung when it’s belly was exposed that it finally died.

Some pink organ spilled from its body when it died. It smelled horrible and Noctis turned to look for the ladder just to get away from it. But before he could Luna scooped it up and set it in her bag.

“Lu what are you doing? That’s gross!”

“Someone told me this makes good fishing bait. So I’m taking it with us.”

“Who told you that?” Asked Prompto, who looked half amused and half grossed out.

“The adventure man did.” She said. “He said Wily’s always paying for him to come in and get some.”

“Oh…” That was still a disgusting sight. But Luna at least decided to carry that one and the others they found. The next few floors were much of the same. Except the tenth floor where they found another elevator that activated when they approached it, and a chest with some nice boots that Noctis let Prompto use to protect his leg.

Level twelve. Several slimes and more ore. Luna swung her sword wildly in an attempt to kill one, and managed to do by letting it chase her until she had enough distance where she’d take a quick swipe before running again. After it was dead Luna collapsed onto the ground, her breath came in quick gasps.

“You okay Lu?”

Her face was red from the exertion. “I’m fine Noctis. Stop mother henning!”

Luna swatted at his shoulder and they turned back to mining once the monsters were gone. There wasn’t much ore on that level, but there was a single ore vein. After they mined it Prompto counted their ore then announced that they had enough to smelt the bars needed to upgrade their watering cans.

“Lu, why don’t you go up and smelt these?” Prompto said. All of the ore went into Luna’s bag. “Noct do you want to keep going and get more ore? Or are you tired?”

He considered going back up with Luna. They had what they needed to get their watering cans done, there wasn’t any urgent need for them to continue further. But they were already down there. And Noctis thought that it might be smart to stockpile some resources. Just in case.

“Let’s go down.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TBH this chapter was fun but it's low on plot. Now that they've all been introduced to the basic mechanics I think I'm going to have them build a relationship with the villagers more.


	4. Lost in Your Forbidden Forests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Spring comes to an end the three slowly build relationships and plan for the future.

When they returned home the ore Luna took had been smelted into several copper bars that she had stacked next to the wood and stone they’d collected. Prompto took two of the cans out to get repaired and they made due with the one for a while before getting them back and getting the third repaired. Clint had hammered out all of the bumps then used the copper to patch up the cracks. Without the leaking they didn’t have to run back to the lake nearly as often and they finished early in the morning rather than noon as they had before. Leaving them with much more free time.

“So… this is what you do all day?” Luna said to Noctis. Prompto didn’t know what to do with the sudden free time they had and Luna thought it might be nice to sit with Noctis while he fished. They’d both planned on only spending a little bit of time with him, but ended up staying after Willy gave them both simple, bamboo fishing poles. The poles looked flimsy, and Prompto wasn’t entirely sure that they’d hold up, but he sat down and cast a line in anyway.

“Yep. Just me, Willy, and the sea,” Noctis leaned back into the sand, the picture of lazy bliss.

“No wonder you got bored.”

“I just miss your lovely voices.”

“Gross.” Luna joked.

Before Luna could continue the end of her line started bending. Prompto reached over when she began struggling and together they reeled in a rather sizable red mullet. Noctis attempted to reach over to help them pull it up, but got sidetracked when his line began bending as well. He and Luna pulled the red mullet up and retrieved the hook from it’s sharp mouth as Noctis reeled in an octopus.

“Ooo, I’ve never got one of these before.” Noctis said. “You’re right Lu, we do need a kitchen so we can make sushi.”

“Well if you want to ditch all of this and go chop down some wood than I would be very, very happy to do so.” She said. Luna reluctantly held her catch up from the ground a full arms length away.

Noctis did not look like he wanted to do that, and Prompto had to agree with what he was feeling. Their axes were dull and useless, and Prompto would rather upgrade them before attempting to chop down a house worth of wood.

“I dunno Lu, I think we should take it easy today. We’ve all worked hard haven’t we?”

Luna rolled her eyes, but looked amused despite that. “Fine, we’ll fish. We can’t sell any crops soon anyway.”

They fished and chatted for hours until they had six very good looking fish lying across the pier. Unfortunately the fish had to go into the sales box rather than their stomachs. After everything was set into the box Prompto went to check their forgotten mail and found a letter from the mayor detailing a festival that was going to happen the next day.

“You guys want to go?” He asked as they entered the house. “They’re going to have an egg hunt.”

“I dunno, doesn’t sound productive.” Noctis said, in a clear attempt to avoid talking to people. “Maybe we should go foraging?”

“But it’ll be fun Noctis,” Luna collapsed onto their bed. “Let’s take a day off, we’ve been working hard haven’t we?”

Prompto laughed as Noctis was quickly and thoroughly debated into a corner. He was going to go even if neither of them wanted to, so their argument was just entertainment.

“Fine.” Noctis whined. “But I’m eating a bunch of food.”

The fish they caught became their spending money the next day. They had about five thousand gold saved and netted a little over three hundred from the fish. He didn’t think they’d spend all of that in one day, but they did deserve to splurge a bit. In the morning they got their watering done quickly and then headed down the path towards town.

“Oh, corndogs!” And like that they lost ten gold to Noctis’ stomach. But it was their day off so Prompto didn’t feel stressed at knowing that this would probably happen several more times throughout the day.

There were several games set up. Prompto split off to play some horseshoe with Sam, a local boy whom he knew about but hadn’t really spoken to. Sam explained the rules, and then they both played through the round as practice. The second they both placed money on, one gold each. Sam one that one, but Prompto won the third round with a clear victory. The fourth round was a tie breaker that ended in a tie. Both he and Sam broke down laughing at the irony. Then they stood aside to let Shane play with Jas.

“Oh hey, do you play games?” Sam asked as they sat aside to watch Abigail attempt the ring toss.

“Yeah, well I used to. Didn’t bring anything with me when we moved out here.”

“That’s cool. You want to stop by and play games with us on Saturday? Sebastian and I normally get together to play Solarian Chronicles then some video games.”

“Sure, that sounds fun.”

Successful social interaction completed! Sam eventually had to leave after his brother wanted to play a game. Prompto headed back into the fray to find Luna at one of the vender stalls mulling over the list of items for sale.

“Should we buy some strawberry seeds?” She asked when he got close enough.

“Isn’t this supposed to be our day off?” He teased, but he handed her the money despite that. Either way it would be a good crop to put in their preserve jars.

The mayor called for the egg hunt just before noon. Prompto chose not to join since it was mostly kids, Abigail, and Luna. Everyone surrounded the mayor who waited just a smidge longer than necessary waiting for people to line up.

“Ready! Set! Go!” The mayor yelled.

He and Noctis sat back and watched everyone scatter. Abigail was fast, and she seemed to have memorized the location of most of the eggs as she immediately dived for one under a bush. Jas slowed down considerably near the river bank when she slipped on wet soil and fell onto her back in the mud. Vincent seemed convinced that a ribbon strip buried under a thorny bush was actually an egg. So the competition ended up mostly being between Luna and Abigail. Luna was smart and bolted in the opposite direction of Abigail, darting behind hiding spots and carting an armful of eggs with her. Prompto lost sight of her several times until the mayor blew his whistle and all competitors headed back towards the center square.

Lewis took a few minutes counted and recounting the eggs, trying to draw out the suspense. It was slightly successful. Luna and Abigail both had collected plenty of eggs, and it wasn’t clear who had the most just by sight. After the second counting Lewis turned towards the group holding the two prizes: a magnet fishing lure and a straw hat.

“And the winner is Abigail.” The mayor announced. He handed the prizes over to Abigail who placed the hat on her head then pocketed the lure.

Luna headed back towards them looking sweaty and red in the face, but ultimately not angry at losing.

“Bummer you didn’t win Lu.” Noctis said when she was in ear shot.

“You just wanted that lure.” She replied.

“Well… it’d make fishing more lucrative. So can you blame me?”

They spent the rest of the day at the festival. Noctis took a break from the festivities to fish with WIlly for a bit, and Luna made flower wreaths with Abigail and Haley. Prompto went with Sam and Sebastian to play games at the saloon. They met up at night for dinner, which was a community BBQ, and ate roasted marshmallows before heading home.

“That was a good day.” Noctis said on their walk back. “I’m glad you strong armed me into coming Lu.”

“Yeah, funny that. It’s almost like I’m right sometimes.” Luna said.

The next day it was back to the daily grind. Prompto was the first one up and he and Luna planted the strawberries. They finished before Noctis was up and they all headed down to the saloon for three grilled cheeses and some extra fries.

“We should try to chop down some of these really big trees near our patch.” Luna said.

“With our terrible axes?” Prompto asked. “Sounds like you want back pain.”

“But it’ll let us collect wood. Plus we need more land if we want to expand.”

Prompto didn’t want to do it, but Luna was persuasive and he found himself swinging a dull blade at the base of a tree. He swung and he swung until the blade made it most of the ways through and from there the weight caused the top of the tree to fall to the ground. He then set to work up rooting the base then chopping it all into wood planks and piling all of that into a pile next to their house.

The pile was not very big when they stopped for dinner, certainly not enough for a house expansion. Prompto was a little annoyed at that. So much work for so little progress. He tried not to let that bring him down as he considered heading down to the mines for copper.

They pulled from that pile several times to make preserves jars. Preserves were something he wasn’t allowed to make growing up, so Luna spent an evening in the library researching techniques and recipes. He and Noctis spent a morning picking strawberries while Luna prepared them and set the whole fruit into the jar with loads and loads of sugar. They left the jars to do their thing, and a few days later Luna opened one up to find strawberry preserves done and ready to be sold.

They spent the morning jarring all of the preserves up before taking care of the rest of the farm. After the crops were watered Luna sat down to hand write labels for each individual jar.

“What should I name them?” She asked.

“The preserves? Just label it strawberry.” He replied, not understanding the question.

“But we need to create a brand, and to do that it needs a unique name. What‘s the name of our farm?”

“Butts.”

Noctis burst out laughing, “Seriously?”

“My grandfather was an immature man.”

“This is a nightmare.” Luna sighed. “How about Lace farm?”

“Sapphire farm?”

“Nature farm?”

“Maybe… Fleur farm.”

“How about Carbuncle farm?” Noctis said.

Prompto paused. That did sound nice. “That wouldn’t give us away though right? Carbuncle isn’t some crownsguard code word or something is it?”

“Nah, it’s the name of guardian that helped me when I was a kid.”

“Awww.” Luna cooed. “Let’s do that then. Better than butts at any rate.”

Luna wrote out the name on some stickers, undr the name she wrote ‘strawberry preserves’. They labeled each jar then Luna set most of them into her bag.

“We’re not selling them?”

“I figured that we should pass them around town to try first. They can give us feedback.” She held up some survey cards she’d made. “They can send it back and we can make improvements to the recipe before we try to sell it. We need something good before we try to market this.”

“We’re marketing this? I thought we were just going to sell it and see what happens?”

“Well we want to make money right? That means we need to create a brand. People pay more for a name they know is good. A strong start makes that easier.”

“I suppose…” He really couldn’t argue with that. “I guess do what you want to. I leave you as manager of this project.”

“Thank you. It’s an honor to be managing myself.” Luna hefted the overstuff bag over her shoulder and headed to town to hand out their trial preserves. Noctis left with her to do some evening fishing before it got too dark.

Prompto cleaned up preserves jars and set them aside for the next strawberry harvest. When the work for the day was done he headed inside and watched a The Queen of Sauce and reminisced about his dad’s weekend breakfasts for half an hour. Neither Luna nor Noctis had returned by the time the show ended so he sat down outside and made some taps with the leftover wood and copper bars. The two he made were then stuck on some of the maple trees that were growing on their farm.

Noctis came home first. He followed Prompto into bed and they played the TV on low while they tried to get to sleep. Luna arrived closer to midnight, wiggling between the both of them and waking them up as she did so.

“Guys, guys! We have to remember to make offerings for the Junimos! They wanted a jar of our preserves!” She half whispered.

“What?” Noctis asked tiredly.

“Noctis grab that sardine in the box, they want one!!”

“We’re still worrying about the junimos? I thought we all agreed that was a weird hallucination?” Prompto asked.

“No we did not Prompto. Listen they left lists in the community center of things that they want. If we give it to them they might appreciate it. Noctis!” She smacked Noctis’ shoulder. “Get the sardine! Give it to them in the morning.”

Noctis sighed then rolled out of bed. “Alright, alright.”

In the morning Prompto collected the money and took stock of what they had while Luna went to drop off the fish. Their earnings were a little lighter than expected without the preserves and the fish, a little disappointing since he didn’t see a lot of money coming in their near future. They had parsnips that needed to be harvested that day, but he didn’t think it best to plant new ones. Parsnips didn’t pull in a lot of money, and if they didn’t get them out in time then they’d lose money that they could’ve spent on food instead. But they grew fast, and since spring was almost over they might be waiting a while before their next big payday. Noctis’ fishing would likely be the only thing keeping them afloat for a while.

“Oh hey, my tulip grew!” Noctis announced. Prompto looked over to see that the flower had finally bloomed after infrequent watering. Noctis’ face split into a grin. “I grew it all by myself!”

“I’m proud of you Noct.”

“Thank you!”

Prompto recounted the money. They could maybe purchase the house expansion. Technically they had the money. If they were lucky planting the parsnips and Noctis’ fishing did well then they would be fine. But those were a lot of ifs. He wasn’t willing to take a risk like that just yet.

So they’d have to wait.

“Do you want to head to the mines?” He asked.

“The mines? What for?” Luna asked.

“For ore. I think we should get ready to upgrade our equipment since we don’t have much else to do for the rest of the season.”

“Sounds smart.” Luna plucked the last of the parsnips from the ground.

They set strawberries into the preserves jars and then waited for Noctis to arrive with breakfast. He came while Prompto was breaking through some of the rocks littering around the farm with waffles and fruit. They all sat down to eat on the porch since the weather was growing fairly hot.

“I was thinking,” Noctis said with an orange slice in his mouth, “We should plant some fruit trees so we can sell fruit.”

“Fruit trees are expensive though Noct.” A personal tree wouldn’t be hard, but to incorporate it with the rest of the farm would be at least four grand. It was an investment that would push everything back if they undertook it.

“I know but, if we plant a bunch of fall ones soon then they’ll make fruit by fall and by then we should have a bunch of preserves jars and we can set up a jam empire.”

“So you want to push the expansion back?”

“...” Noct thought a moment. “Yes.”

Prompto looked to Luna. She didn’t seem as angry at the thought as he thought she would. He surveyed the area. They had space that could be cleared to the right of their house, and the trees didn’t need to be watered. Once they were down they could all forget about them for all of summer and have something to work with come fall.

“It does sound like a smart investment…” Luna said.

“Okay, if everyone’s in agreement tomorrow than we’ll plant some trees. But we’ll have to clear out an area for it instead of going to the mines.”

“We can do that.” Noctis said. “No problem.”

After breakfast they all took some time to clear out an area for the fruit trees. Luna went in and chopped down the hay and weeds while Noctis broke up all of the stones littering around. Prompto axed down three trees which was not a pleasant experience. His axe did little against the strong wood, but he eventually got them down leaving a long, thick strip of land for them to plant their trees. Prompto had a double serving of lunch before he was reluctantly convinced to go down to the forest to chop even more trees and do some foraging.

He followed Luna down to the forest, past the lake that Noctis eyed. It was the same area the wizard lived in, but in the light it looked significantly more inviting. A river crossed through it. Prompto made sure they all stayed close to it as they began chopping down trees.

They kept close to one another and stacked their wood up nearby. When they were done they would have to carry it back, but Robin had told him that it was common for people to chop wood one day and then transport it back the next. If they chopped too much to carry then they just needed to label it to show that it was theirs and then come back for it in a few days.

At four they all decided to take a break by the river. Prompto stuck his feet into the stream next to Luna’s tired toes and leaned back into the grass. The position stretched his sore back out and he relaxed into it.

“Man I should come back. This would be a good place to fish.” Noctis said.

“You haven’t been fishing in a while.” Luna said. “You miss it?”

“Yeah.” Noctis sighed wistfully. “I also really miss Willy.”

Luna burst out laughing. Prompto gave her a confused glance before the joke processed in his mind and he was suddenly doubled over laughing. 

“What?” Noctis demanded. “What’s so funny?”

“Of course you would miss Willy! He must be having a hard time without you.” Luna choked out. She began laughing even harder at the joke.

“Wow guys, wow.” Noctis pulled his feet out of the stream and stomped to where they left their axes. “I’m going to get back to work.”

“So you can go help Willy?” Prompto joked. He wasn’t sure if Noctis heard it because when he finally got control of himself Noctis was gone.

“Maybe we should get back to work,” Luna wiped a single tear from her eye.

They cut wood until the sun began to set. In those few hours neither of them saw Noctis even once. Prompto figured he’d headed home and didn’t worry about it, but when they arrived he wasn’t there.

“He might have gone fishing after all.” Luna said. “He’ll probably be back late.”

They waited and waited, but midnight came and there was no sight of Noctis. Luna sat by the single, solitary window looking out at the farm and Prompto tried to distract himself by watching Livin’ off the Land reruns.

“Should we look for him?” She asked.

“We might get lost too Lu.” He sighed. “He’s an adult. If he’s not back by the morning we’ll talk with the mayor okay?”

Eventually Luna came to bed, leaving the porch light on for Noctis. Neither of them slept well, but neither of them spoke either. The house remained quiet. In the morning they got out of bed and walked down to the town without even looking at the farm.

“Mayor Lewis.” Luna said. They found Lewis standing outside of Pierre’s looking very tired in the early morning. “Have you seen Noctis? He didn’t come home last night.”

The mayor yawned, “I personally haven’t. But when someone’s found late at night we normally take them over to Harvey.”

“Harvey?”

“The doctor.” He pointed to the building next to Pierre’s. “Harvey has the number for the scouts that patrol the area.”

Prompto walked over. The sign stated that the clinic didn’t open until nine, but he ignored it and knocked on the front door anyway. After a minute it opened up to reveal a very tired looking brunet man in his pajamas.

“Hi-.”

“Luna, Prompto. You here for Noctis?”

“Yes!” Luna practically yelled. “He’s here?”

Harvey let them in. “Yes. A patrol found him inside the secret forest and brought him here around midnight.”

“Oh, see Lu? He was fine.”

“I wouldn’t call being found outside a forest fine Prompto.”

The followed Harvey to the back where Noctis was actually half awake. He was chugging down a glass of water that had been left near his bed, and his hair had some dirt in it that Noctis was clearly too tired to care about.

“Noctis!” Luna threw her arms around his shoulder. “What were you doing staying out like that.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“He’s fine to leave.” Harvey said. “Make sure he rests.”

They helped Noctis get out of bed and from there he walked slowly towards the farmhouse. Noctis didn’t have a limp, but he did have bruises and was clearly too tired to be up.

“Why didn’t you come home last night Noct?” Prompto asked as they walked. “Did you just try to camp out or something?”

“No.” He protested. “I went off to find wood! But then I found this area with some slimes and I had to kill them. Then I found a lake and I decided since I killed all these slimes that I earned a break, but then it was night and when I tried to get back I got lost…”

“Of course you’d get lost Noctis.” Luna teased. “Do you only know how to get to WIlly’s?”

“... Yes.”

“Prompto what do we do?” She asked. “If we leave him alone he gets lost.”

“I’ll be fine! I just need to walk around more. There’s no road signs.”

“Why would a forest have road signs? We need to get you a map.”

Noctis immediately went to bed and didn’t wake up until dinner. He and Luna handled the farm for the day, watering and getting rid of some stones still lying around. Noctis woke up to eat a pizza they all shared then they all went to bed.

The next morning they quickly pulled the last of their produce out and took the best of them over to the junimos. They fulfilled a few of the requests, but not enough to complete a full list.

“Guess we’ll have to finish it next year.”

“Do you think we’ll be here next year?” Luna asked.

“Where else would we be?”

“... I guess you’re right. Better here than home I suppose.”

“So we need tomatoes, peppers, blueberries, and melons next summer if we want to fulfill it.”

“Do we want to fulfill it though?” Noctis asked. “Who knows what they’ll do.”

“They’re benevolent Noctis.” Luna replied. “What’s the worst they could do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there was a month long gap. Not ideal, but hopefully I'll avoid it in the future. I've tried to switch focus a bit, and write many chapters ahead to post on a schedule rather than posting one immediately after I finish. So, hopefully, every two weeks this story will be updated.
> 
> Youtuber voice: like, comment, and subscribe.


	5. Day Drinking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On a rare day off two girls bond and the junimos are pleased.

On the first day of summer Luna woke up to find a death had occurred during the night. She and Prompto found the body when they went out to fill their watering cans. Prompto ran to find a bin to dispose of it, but they were both too slow. Noctis walked down the steps, looked down, and saw it.

“TULIP!” He sobbed. “Why is it dead!?”

“It’s summer now Noct.” Prompto tried to explain. Luna gently tried to shield Noctis from the sight. “Your tulip can’t survive in the heat.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Noctis’ voice cracked as he came close to crying.

“I thought you knew?”

Luna knew that was a lie, Prompto probably just forgot about it and was just trying to cover it up. But she refrained from voicing that thought since it helped no one. Prompto cleaned up the body so Noctis didn’t have to, which helped things get back on track. After it was gone Noctis calmed down just a touch, looking less and less like he was about to cry. He was able to help clear the fields, and eventually was calm enough to go with them to purchase seeds at Pierre’s.

The spring selection had been switched out for a variety of summer seeds. Prompto got a little bit of everything, then came out and present Noctis with a new flower, a spangle seed, to replace tulip.

“I’m going to name it Tulip Two.” Noctis announced as they began the walk back with their newest produce.

“You can’t call it tulip Noctis.” She said. “You’ll give it a complex.”

“Don’t box tulip two into a corner!”

“Yeah Luna.” Prompto said.

“It can be whatever it wants to be.”

“Yeah Luna!”

She rolled her eyes, “Whatever.”

“Hey. Hey Noct!” Prompto said. “Twolip.”

Noctis snorted. “That’s good. Tulip Two your new name is Twolip.”

They spent all day planting their crops in neat rows. Noctis tenderly planted Twolip into the spot where Tulip once lived. The next day they watered and took care of the farm, then headed down to Pierre’s again to purchase apple and pomegranate tree starters. Ten thousand gold well spent to create a small grove of apple and pomegranates that would, hopefully, produce lots of fruit come fall.

Noctis took the starters over to the cleared square and carefully planted each and every one, showing an attentiveness only reserved for his spangle-tulip. Luna was a little disappointed at having to push the expansion back, but 

The preserves jars were done with the first round of strawberry produce, she emptied them into jars to make room for the next batch. Prompto selected a couple to keep, but the rest went into the sales bin next to several cases of his beer. They then sat down to make two more preserves jars to finish up the rest of last season’s harvest. Dinner at the saloon, tuna subs and a bag of potato chips, then sleep.

The next morning Luna woke up to the sounds of rain and the house’s, weird groaning noises. She was the first up, so she gently pushed herself out of bed so she could check on the farm only to immediately trip and face plant on the floor. Her painful impact woke up the guys who tiredly rubbed at their faces as she struggled to get up.

“Why is there a plant pot here?” She demanded.

“Lunaaaaaa, you’re so loud.” Noctis complained.

“Someone left a pot here!” She hauled the thing over to the side of the door. “Which one of you did it?”

“Maybe someone moved it there and forgot to move it back?” Prompto said. He sat up in bed and stretched his arms up.

That didn’t sound right, she didn’t see how it could have been anyone other then them two. But Noctis didn’t normally wake up in the middle of the night, or have the mental capacity to do much of anything before nine, and Prompto had been the one to shove the half broken pots in the lone closet when they moved in. She hauled the pot back to the closet, grabbing the coats as she did so, and they all headed outside to check on the crops.

“I’ve never seen rain during the summer.” She said. Prompto waded out to check that the water wasn’t flooding everything.

“It is weird.” Noctis replied.

“I hope it doesn’t happen too often. Too much water will kill everything.”

“Plants can die from that?”

“Yes.”

“Since when?”

“Since forever Noctis. Everything might be destroyed.”

“Everything should be fine.” Prompto said as he returned. “We don’t have to water them. What do you guys want to do?”

“Go back inside?” She suggested.

“I’m going fishing.”

“Noctis if you go fishing you will literally die.”

“How?”

“You’ll find a way. If you go please try to be back by ten? So we don’t have to search for you at the doctor’s again.”

Noctis rolled back on his heels, his face just a little annoyed at the accusation, “Sure.”

“Thank you. Stay out of trouble you two.”

“Yes ma’am.” Noctis said.

Noctis took his fishing pole and box of bait with him to the ocean and Prompto went off towards the mines. She contemplated going inside and heading back to bed, but she didn’t want to be the only one to waste the day away. Instead she headed south down towards the forests to do some foraging.

The rain wasn’t heavy, but there was the occasional thunder and lightning. Luna wasn’t too concerned about it since the flashes weren’t nearby. A couple of frogs hopped around the entrance to the forest. An especially big one landed on a baby and the two got into a small scuffle. It was weirdly entertaining on it’s own and Luna stayed to watch the second meeting of David and Goliath. They snapped at one another until the smaller one got a nip at the bigger one’s belly and the bigger one retreated.

Luna walked towards the lake expecting to be alone and instead found a girl. She was a pretty, redheaded girl who sat comfortably under an umbrella on the wooden pier on the lake. Her hand dug into the worn pages of a sketchbook that sat propped up on her lap.

Luna didn’t pull a name immediately, but she remembered giving the girl a jar of jam so she didn’t feel awkward in taking a seat a few feet from her and letting her feet dangle into the water. Under the summer rain the forest was calm and peaceful. Some fish darted under her feet as the rain created little rings in the water. A small carp analyzed her foot for a moment before darting away.

“I didn’t realize you lived so close.” The girl said. Luna almost jumped from the sudden sound.

“Hmm?”

“To me.” She pointed down the pathway. Luna could see the corner of a cottage past a tree.

“Oh you live out here? That’s so far away from the rest of the village.”

“I could say the same to you.” 

“I guess you could.”

The girl leaned over and held out her hand. “I’m Leah.”

She reached over and shook it, “Luna.”

Leah leaned back in her seat. “I tried you jam this morning. It was good, but I think it was a little sweet.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but that just might be me. It’s exciting though, finally getting a farm nearby. When Jojamart came in a lot of the other farms in the valley stopped sending stuff over to Pierre’s. It was a terrible, pretty much everyone started shopping there.”

“Why is that so terrible?”

“Because they didn’t want us to support some faceless corporation. Honestly Lewis should’ve kicked them out, but he doesn’t know when to put his foot down and actually do something.”

“I’m sure there were many reasons he didn’t.”

Leah shrugged, “Probably. I’m sure there’s a lot of politics involved... So, what are you doing out here? Today I mean, not in general.”

“Don’t have to work on the farm when it rains. Nothing else to do really.”

“So it’s an off day? Shame you only get a break when it’s raining.” She began packing up her pencils. “Do you want to come back to my cottage? I’ve got wine.”

“Isn’t it a bit early to drink?”

Leah shrugged. “It’s five somewhere.”

Leah’s cottage was a short walk away. They both ducked under her umbrella and almost ran towards it. Leah then handed over her umbrella so she could fumble with her keys so she could unlock it and they both headed inside.

The inside was beautiful, with a warm fire and Leah’s art strewn about. She had statues half done in a corner and several original paintings hanging on her wall. An easel was in the corner, Luna ran her finger over the side and it came back dusty so she could tell that it hadn’t been used in a while. A few sketches crunched when Luna accidentally stepped on them, but Leah did not seem to care at their destruction in the slightest as she was too busy going through her cabinets.

“Red or white?” She asked.

“Either is fine.”

Leah set both out alone with some cheese, sliced meats, and fruit. She poured a healthy amount of red into two glasses and passed one over.

“So, you’re kind of old to be starting a life of farming. What brought you out here?”

Luna almost sagged, that was a very heavy question that she wished were simpler. She couldn’t talk about any part of her actual life before arriving in Stardew Valley. They were all hiding from their fates. Just trying to survive long enough until they felt like the prophecy had passed. With no idea when they’d be able to go back to their old lives.

“Oh, well, Prompto’s grandfather gave that land to him years ago, and eventually we were all sick of working in an office all day. So we decided to come down here and see what we could do.”

“So you might go back?”

Maybe. “No way, it’s so nice out here. Did you grow up here?”

Leah shook her head. “Nah, grew up out in the city. I’m kinda like you. I hated my job, but I couldn’t afford to quit it and still live up there so I saved up and bought this land. Robin built my cabin and I moved in the day after. I do miss it sometimes.”

Luna almost agreed. Country life was nice, but in the city always had something to do. People to talk to. Living in the city she didn’t have to wake up at six in the morning to work on a farm.

But living in the country meant that they didn't have to die. And the people of Stardew Valley were so nice, it was almost easy to forget that they were only there because they had nowhere else to go.

“I do miss it sometimes. I miss being able to get a burrito at three in the morning.”

Leah laughed, “Oh gosh, me too. But it’s been great on my waistline. I foraged so many spring onions, I’m still eating salad.”

The phone rang, filling the cottage with a sharp sound that made Luna jump. Leah did not look interested in answering it. She quickly switched to the latest swimming competition as she ignored it, but Luna could tell that the ringing was making her irritated. After a moment the sound ended and the answering machine clicked, but a minute later it began ringing again. Leah stopped talking then sighed.

“Excuse me.”

She walked over to the phone and kept her back to Luna as she answered it.

“Hello?” She sighed, voice so clearly communicating her reluctance to speak with the person.

A pause.

“No I don’t want to come back to you… no… no… I said no!” She sighed. “I’m not telling you where I’m at… Bye.”

Luna didn’t know how to reply. What she saw was so personal she almost felt uncomfortable knowing that she’d intruded on it. Leah turned back, face tense but softening when the phone remained silent.

“Sorry you had to see that.”

“No, it’s fine. I can relate. I ran from a lot of people when I came here.”

Leah sat down in her seat. “Any ex’s?”

“No, it’s complicated. I ran away from my brother, and someone I would consider my mother. And when I left I had to leave in the middle of the night. I met with my boyfriends at the border and we came here afterwards. I miss them sometimes.” She was wondering down forbidden territory again. “What about your ex. Were they at least nice?”

Leah let out a sad chuckle. “He thought I was stupid…”

The conversation went into Leah’s terrible ex-boyfriend. Then quickly turned to more happy topics. They shared local town gossip and general news about the world. Leah gave her an old radio so she could listen to serials and Luna promised a jar of preserves, that she wasn’t entirely sure she was allowed to give away, in return. The conversation eventually rounded to talk of Sam’s improving band and improvements made to Carbuncle Farms.

Luna left well after the sunset feeling tipsy but also fairly happy. The rain had stopped at that point but the grass was wet and made little squelching sounds as she walked. When she arrived home Prompto was by the smelter stacking steel bars and refined quartz into neat piles. Several copper bars and a jar of bait sat by his feet.

“You were productive today.”

“Yup. Barely ran into a monster. I brought all these miner’s treats for nothing.”

“Well that’s good. Should we sell some of these bars?”

“No, we’ll probably need them eventually.” He leaned back on the side of the house. “Never sell what you might use unless you’re broke. And we’re a little far from broke.”

Luna couldn’t argue with that. She helped Prompto stack and organize his findings until Noctis came back. He came from the forests entrance carrying several still twitching fish.

“Guess what you guys!”

“What?” Prompto said.

“I went fishing in the ocean and the lake, and I managed to find the last fish for some of the bundles the Junimos wanted!”

“Oh good…” Prompto said.

“Why don’t you come with us Prompto? So you can see them.” She offered.

“They’re cute.” Noctis said.

“So were furbies.”

She refused to reply to that because she didn’t really have a response. In cases like those she was taught to say nothing and let the evidence prove her point. They dragged Prompto through town to the broken down community center.

The inside was just as dark and dank as before. Luna didn’t know where the junimos were but the things she’d left a few weeks ago were gone. They walked over towards the broken fish tank where the list was displayed above a small box. The writing was neat and legible, detailing the various fish and where they were found. Noctis set a pufferfish in then some clam shells and a tilapia.

A pause. Long enough to almost convince her that nothing would happen. Then a small junimo carrying five medium sized blue sticks and dragging three crab pots came from the hut.

Prompto ran.

The door slammed shut behind him, alerting Luna to her fleeing boyfriend. She turned to follow him, but Noctis was significantly faster and was already yanking open the door to follow him.

“Wait Prom!” Noctis yelled. “Come back it’s friendly!”

Since Noctis was on the case she didn’t feel the need to run. Prompto’s fear was fairly understandable. In the low light a tiny blob carrying various, large objects coming towards them would be terrifying. It certainly wouldn’t seem friendly like in the Wizard’s well lit room.

She collected their gifts and thanked the junimos before following them both down. Prompto and Noctis had stopped halfway down the steps towards town which she assumed was about the point when Prompto calmed down. They both were breathing heavily, although Noctis was noticeably more out of breath than Prompto, first place in the ten meter sprint, was.

“It looked like an evil apple!” Prompto said in a rush. “It looked nothing like what the wizardy weirdo of pelican town showed us!”

“It’s not going to hurt you Prompto.” She assured. “See, this is what it gave us.”

She showed Prompto the sticks and the crab pots then handed both of them over to Noctis.

“I think these are for you.”

“Cool.” Noctis took them then held up one of the sticks, “What’s this for?”

“I dunno. But they’re imbued with some kind of magic. We’ll keep them and I’m sure we’ll find out later.”

“I should’ve never brought you two here. You guys attract some weird shit.” Prompto complained.

“And look at how fun your life is now.” She teased as they all headed home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a slow break before things ramp up again. See ya'll in two weeks.


	6. First Expansion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They've managed to afford the kitchen expansion for their house. Now what?

In midsummer Noctis laid down the sandfish down into the box near the broken fish tank. He’d patiently worked at the fishing bundle as Luna requested, asking Prompto for money when he spotted one for sale, and managed to fulfill every request. He expected a junimo to pop up from the hole, somehow carrying a furnace or a precarious stack of seeds as a gift. A junimo did pop out dragging a stack of dish o’ the sea piled on top of one another, but after he collected the stack several popped out of the woodworks right under his feet. Turning the dangerous floor into a carpet of grass like creatures. Noctis panicked, almost dropping the stack in shock.

Just as quickly as they appeared they disappeared, leaving Noctis confused. After a moment he decided that it was a strange, thirty second long hallucination. He carried the plates out of the center happy that he’d managed to find dinner.

In Insomnia, Regis went to bed as he always did. Sitting heavily down and struggling just a tad in getting the sheets up over his chest. He’d hadn’t slept as fitfully since Ignis and Gladio returned without his son, but that night he fell into a deep sleep quite suddenly. As he lay resting a trail of apples slowly crossed under his door into the room. They trailed up the bed and into the sheets where they gathered around the ailing king. A group gathered around his knees and began repairing the bone. Another group patched his frail lungs. Several purified the bile that slowly ate away at his blood, and others soothed his aching back.

When they were done they trailed back outside, leaving the room exactly as they found it. Several hours later, as the sun began to rise, the king woke up feeling very strange. He didn’t feel the mind numbing soreness he typically felt when he typically woke. When he stood up he didn’t need to reach for his cane. His knees did not buckle under his own weight. Pain did not shoot down his spine. He checked to confirm that the wall was still up. That his city was safe. Walking quickly to confirm with his glaive that his city was safe.

Noctis was completely unaware of what transpired that night. He laid on the end of the bed furthest from the wall and slept heavily. In the morning he was the last one up and came out as both Luna and Prompto were harvesting tomatoes.

“Guess what?” Luna said. She bounced up when she saw him, “We have enough for the expansion!”

“Really?” Noctis was almost excited enough to bounce as well. He’d been eating meatball subs once a week since they’d arrived months ago. It was about time they got a kitchen even if it was only to microwave meals.

“We’re going to go up and order it at nine. And then we’re getting beers!”

“Finally, I’d been waiting for a drink since we started.” He teased. He stepped in to help harvest the melon.

Robin was absolutely thrilled to see them again. And she was even more thrilled to note down their preferred expansion and Prompto’s appliance list. It was quite long and Noctis didn’t know exactly what most of them were. He wondered if the expansion took so long because it was actually expensive or because Prompto needed a walk in fridge. But he didn’t say anything, because he’d long accepted that Prompto was the only person equipped to actually manage the whole operation.

“Perfect. I’ll get on it straight away.” Robin said. She snapped the book closed with finality. Prompto passed over the cash and gave her instructions on where their hoard of supplies were on the farm. They then headed down the mountain to the saloon for one of the last few meals they’d need to eat there.

Gus poured them all a beer before starting on making their pizzas. He had a selection of craft brews available, but they stuck with a generic, big name brand. The end of summer was approaching and they did have to save for that period of fall when they had nothing to produce. 

They talked through lunch occasionally about the expansion, but also about other things. Willy had invited him to a big fishing trip during the winter, and Luna was slowly learning how to identify mushrooms to forage. Pleasant conversation. Conversation that made Noctis realize how much he enjoyed living in Stardew Valley. He didn’t think he’d enjoy living in a small village in the middle of nowhere.

They split up after lunch, Luna went to forage for berries and mushrooms up the mountain while he and Prompto headed back to the farmhouse. On their way back Prompto went into Pierre’s for a few giant bags of malt, oats, hops, and yeast. Pierre had a worker deliver it to the farm in an hour and from there Prompto started working on something with one of the large kegs he’d built. Noctis didn’t know what it was exactly. It seemed to involve a bunch of the stuff they bought and boiling a bunch of water. Noctis tried to keep himself entertained by watching the weather forecast for the week. In the rain big catfish came to the surface, and he wanted to catch a couple to fry up in their new kitchen.

“What were you doing?” He asked when Prompto came in later that night.

“Making beer.” Prompto said. “I kinda want to see how it’ll go.”

“So we can have beer every night?” He asked hopefully.

“No, so we can make money. I’m taking Luna’s advice and expanding our “brand”.” He flopped down on the bed next to Noctis and turned the tv to livin’ off the land.

“So you sell it,” Noctis rested his head on Prompto’s shoulder. “First here and then further and further. Then in eight months half of the glaive is spending fifteen luciennes on Carbuncle farm beer.”

“Maybe.” Prompto laughed, “It would be funny if the Kingsglaive got drunk on our beer and started a bar fight again.”

“Finally, we can be the reason Gladio walks around with a black eye for two days.”

“Yeah, get him so numbed up he doesn’t even notice the pain.”

“He doesn’t notice pain normally either. He told me himself. He only feels hunger. It’s why he almost ate Crowe’s hair that night.”

“Who ate who’s hair?” Luna asked. She toed off her shoes at the door.

“Gladio ate Crowe’s hair.” He answered.

“I can see why all the women love him.” Luna said sarcastically. “I put some spice berries in preserves jars. We’re not selling them they’re mine and I will eat them all.”

She flopped into bed and they all quickly fell asleep to the sound of the TV. Noctis, like always, looked forward to waking up late and going out fishing. But he quickly ran into a hurdle when he was woken up before the sun even rose to an incessant hammering sound. He heard a creak and a tear as a wooden plank two feet from him fell to the ground outside.

“Wow. She was eager to get started.” Noctis complained. He rolled out of bed to head outside only to trip on a pot that was on the floor. “What the hell?”

“It’s that damn pot again!” Luna complained she grabbed it without helping him up and threw it back in their closet. “I swear we are haunted.”

Noctis pushed himself up and followed Prompto outside to see Robin happily hammering away at the west side of their home.

“Oh don’t mind me!” She said. “I’ll be done in a few days.”

“I forgot exactly what an expansion would entail.” Luna sighed. “Come on, let’s grab our watering cans. We should follow her example.”

Noctis focused on watering the vegetables while Luna checked on her preserves and Prompto checked on his beer. Luna quickly canned one of the jars that was full of a berry mix then set them aside to label later. Prompto didn’t seem happy with whatever he saw with the keg and left it alone.

They headed out to buy seeds at nine. Prompto bought some radishes and significantly more wheat than before. They then they grabbed food and headed back to plant the seeds. Noctis separated from them to chop down some trees and make room as their farm expanded, but his axe was not nearly sharp enough to make it through the giant stumps nor was his pickaxe strong enough to smash through the boulders. Some rows ended up getting planted in a separate area that he cleared.

Robin did not let up or take a break from her work. She carried on well into the evening when Noctis would’ve gladly been in bed. He appreciated her work ethic but did not enjoy waiting for the hammering to stop so he could sleep. When she was done there was a large hole in the wall and a foundation for the expansion had been laid. Which meant that when they went to bed there was a nice, cooling breeze.

“We should ask her to leave it like this.” He said. “It’s kinda nice.”

“Say that in the morning.” Prompto said, before he ducked under the covers.

Noctis didn’t understand what Prompto meant by that until he woke up in the morning with thumb sized mosquito bites littering his arms. They were annoying and he had to immediately resist scratching at them. Luna was not so wise. By the time they made it outside her arms were very, very red from her furious itching. Prompto caught up with her and slathered aloe vera all over her before she could make it worse.

Prompto retrieved the syrups from the tappers he installed and set about building two separate bee hives. Those went to a far corner of the farm, a safe distance from their house.

“Do we really need those?” He asked.

Prompto shrugged. “If we’re going to have a kitchen it’d be nice to have some honey. It’s only a small one.”

“If those bees attack I’m blaming you.”

“Bees don’t attack Noct.”

“They did when I was five!”

Prompto laughed as if his childhood trauma of being chased through a garden by a single bee was funny. “They wanna eat you. I bet royal skin tastes delicious.”

“Shut up Prompto!”

Prompto got up close and poked at his cheek. “They want your skin Noct. They’ll surround you and gnaw at your flesh.”

“Shut up!”

Noctis ran to the other side of the farm and Prompto followed yelling about the bees coming for him. He attempted to get away from it by climbing a pine tree, but it was low and Prompto grabbed at his waist to pull him down.

“You’re going to hurt yourselves!” Luna yelled.

“The bees will hurt us Lu!” Prompto yelled.

“Get him off of me!” He yelled.

They got into a small scuffle before where Prompto pulled Noctis from the tree, making him fall flat on his ass. They went about finishing the rest of their chores then piled inside to watch the fortune teller predict misfortune for an unlucky viewer Robin left soon after the sun fell and by then it looked as if things were halfway built. Noctis could see several cabinets built out and outlets for the appliances were installed. He fell asleep with Luna laying on his shoulder, cutting off circulation to his arm. 

When he woke up his arm had pins traveling up and down his arm that were fairly annoying. Both Prompto and Luna were gone and he rolled out of bed to get to work only to face plant when he tripped over the pot again.

“What the hell?” He yelled. Luna was close enough to hear him and she came in as he fumbled the pot back into the closet.

“Was that the pot again?” She asked.

“Yeah.” He shoved the door closed. It was starting to get on his nerves, tripping over that pot over and over again.

“We’re haunted I’m sure of it.” Luna announced. She reached into the closet and pulled out the bag she’d packed when she left. Noctis had thought it was emptied, but Luna instead pulled out some sage and lit it with an old, half empty lighter. “If this doesn’t protect us then we’re in trouble.”

Noctis ran out of the house and let her do whatever witchcraft she felt like needed to be done. Prompto was outside checking on his beer, looking content at whatever reading he got from the sample. He then got to the slow process of filling the individual glass bottles by using a small spout at the end. The filling went slowly and every once in a while it overflowed and spilled to the ground. But when Noctis checked back at noon Prompto had rows and rows of 750ml beer bottles.

“Oooohhh.” Noctis held one up. The color was a light amber through the clear bottle. “These look good.”

“I hope they are. I’m gonna do what Luna did and give it to Gus to sell locally for people to try. The next round I’ll sell through the bin.”

“Don’t give it all away.”

“We can keep twenty.”

“Fifty.”

“No.”

Noctis frowned and crossed his arms. He didn’t spend weekends in debate lessons to not get fifty, large sized bottles of beer from his brewmaster boyfriend.

“I promise I won’t wander away.”

“That’s not a promise you can keep.” Prompto firmly rebutted.

Noctis hunkered down, he had to make Ignis proud and win this. “It is a promise I can keep. I’ll lock the door and hide the keys.”

“I’ll let you keep twenty-five beers.”

Victory. A minor one, but still a victory. “Thank you, I love you.”

Prompto gathered the bottles up into his bag while Luna made him up some questionnaire cards and a few labels. Prompto then headed to town like a beer santa claus, ready to give all the adults their summer presents.

“You know Lu, if Prompto can make beer from the wheat then we can totally make wine from the fruit.”

“Noctis no. We’re out in the middle of nowhere. You don’t need to be getting lost in a forest.”

“Why do you two just assume that I’ll always wander off when I’m drunk?”

“Because Ignis found you in the dumpster of the Cactuar Sandwich Spot.” She deadpanned. “You don’t even like them.”

“There were extenuating circumstances!”

“No there weren’t!”

“Yes there was!” Luna rolled her eyes and walked away from him. “I just can’t remember them! Who do you believe, Ignis or me?”

He eventually had to flee to the great fishing frontier when Luna pulled out the melons to start on some melon jam. It was time for work and therefore time for him to do what he did best. He arrived at the pier just as Willy locked his shop up to prepare for a night of fishing.

“Got kicked out?” He joked as Noctis put some tackle on his line.

“You could say that.”

“Hehe. Been there. Datin’ ain’t easy. It’s why I’m married to the sea.”

“It’s not so bad. I needed to come out and catch dinner anyway.”

“Ya got that kitchen you wanted?”

“It’s in development.”

“Hmmm.” Willy unlocked the front door of his shop and headed back inside. Noctis waited comfortably outside for him to return. He pulled up a broken CD and some algae while he waited which he put to the side to throw away.

Willy came back after a few minutes and handed him a worn notecard. “Mah papi loved to cook. That was my favorite recipe. Make it and tell me what you think.”

The recipe card was faded, but Noctis could still make out the words that made up the simple recipe. Some butter, clams, milk, and flour. Noctis thought it actually might be a little good.

“Thanks!”

He quit fishing to look for clams on the beach. They typically littered the shore near the main peer and the peer next to it. Noctis didn’t leave until he had a bagful of them and several rainbow shells. Before whatever valuable shells he found would end up being sold so he decided that he’d keep the few he found as he headed back home.

The house looked almost completely finished when he arrived, but there were still tools strewn about and partially cut wood on the ground. The appliances inside were still disconnected from the power supply and Robin had left for the day. He set the clams in a box for storage then headed inside.

After another night sleeping with no draft draft he woke up late to a complete lack of hammering noises. He sat up to see Luna fiddling around with the stove while Prompto unboxed some cast iron pans.

Noctis wasn’t expecting for there to be so much space. Their home was easily doubled, maybe even tripled, from the small cabin it once. The east most wall became a doorway the opened up out into the kitchen area with enough space between the door and the kitchen to be called a modest living room. The kitchen itself was spacious. The stove was a thick slab of stone over several burners and the fridge was a walk in that could fit all three of them. The wall opposite the oven had a counter made of two inches of wood. Noctis didn’t know what they’d do with so much space, but he was sure they’d all find a use for it.

He wanted to try everything out but there was too much work to do. Preserves had to be packaged and sold and Prompto had gotten the majority of the beer survey’s back. They were overwhelmingly positive so Prompto brought out two other kegs and got to work making another two batches of the amber brew he made and one of a white beer.

“You picked this up quick Prom.” Noctis commented as he tried to avoid doing chores. “I guess that’s to be expected? Since your parents were farmers.”

“Well that and they made beer.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but it was more of a basement project,” Prompto set a giant bucket of water over a makeshift fire he’d made. 

“They had you help brewing basement beer as a kid?”

“Yep.” Prompto said casually. Lucis’ drinking laws were so strict that the maids had to fill his wine glass with grape juice at functions until he was twenty. A dignitary bought him wine for his nineteenth birthday and his father had immediately yanked it from his hands once they were alone. Noctis couldn’t imagine being allowed in the same room with unsealed alcohol as a kid. Granted he likely would’ve immediately drank himself sick.

“Did you ever partake?”

“Once in a while.”

“Why didn’t you invite me over?”

“Because my parents said that if I did then they’d disown me!”

“No they wouldn’t’ve!”

”Yeah, well, I didn’t want them to get pissed.” He said. “Remember, I had to live with ‘em.”

Noctis did not try and argue with that. Prompto’s parents were an interesting duo. He knew they had few rules, but those rules were stricted. Decent grades, no trouble with the law, nothing too shocking. He also knew that they had been refugees from a small village far north in Niflheim’s territory. They were different, but Prompto never complained about them.

After the work was done they all split up for the day. Luna wandered off to forage for some green onions and Prompto hit up the mines for more ore. Noctis decided to stay back and attempt to get a head start on dinner.

He sold a few foraged red mushrooms for a small pack of eggs and some oil. He figured that would make a decent meal with a melon that had yet to make it to the preserves jar. He took that back home and pulled out a small, thick pan from one of the cabinets.

Noctis had seen plenty of people crack an egg into a pan, but he’d honestly never done it himself. He attempted to crack it on the pan like he saw Ignis do many times and smashed one out of six of the eggs on the side. The yolk oozed out all over the new stove.

He cleaned it up best he could and tried again. The second attempt he cracked it and opened it up with both hands. It mostly ended up in the pan and he turned the burner on when he realized that the egg was in a cold. Soon the egg was stuck to the bottom of a ripping hot pan and no amount of scraping could get it up.

That pan went into the sink. He found another and he remembered to oil the bottom and kept it over the heat. The egg landed in the center causing hot oil to splatter and stain his clothes. It then quickly went from raw to charcoal black. Eggs four and five were down the drain before Noctis realized that he had the heat on too high.

The sixth egg was the only one edible. It’s yolk cracked on impact, but after some maneuvering he had a plate of partially scrambled eggs on his plate. He celebrated his victory by taking a big bite only to realize that he’d forgotten to season it.

He ended up sitting alone in an empty saloon as Gus cooked on his lunch. Watching Gus work on cooking, the easy way he handled so many complex things at once, made him feel more depressed about his complete inability to fry a fuckiing egg.

“What’s got you down kid?”

“Nothing important.” He sullenly sighed.

Gus slid a sandwich in front of him. Another daily special. Noctis almost actually did throw it away, but he was hungry and there was work that needed done.

“Don’t say that. If it’s important to you than it’s important.”

Noctis sighed again. “I tried to cook today and all I did was make a burnt mess.”

“Really now? What’d you try to make?”

“A fried egg.”

Gus tutted. “You kids today. No one taught ya how to cook an egg?”

“Nope. Someone was always around to do it for me.” He felt pathetic just saying that. How did he end up so unable to take care of himself? Well, he knew the answer to that, but it was even more depressing than the question.

“Well why don’t ya come ‘round and I’ll show ya?”

Noctis looked up. Gus looked serious. “Really?”

“Yeah sure. Eggs are the most important ingredient in cooking.”

Noctis shuffled around to the bar’s front kitchen. It was a modest size, there was a station with from vegetables already chopped up and some dough was portioned out in a tray. A small set of burners were in front and the pan used to warm up the meatballs sat in the sink. Gus pulled out a carton of eggs and set a clean pan on the stove.

“Now, cookin’ an egg is like makin’ love to a woman. You gotta be gentle.”

“Ok… I’ve, uh, never done that before?”

“Ah, don’t be shy. You three alone up on that farm, I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“No I do not. Please use another metaphor.”

Gus laughed at that. Then he walked Noctis through frying a single egg and making a simple omelette. The impromptu lesson lasted half an hour and he got to eat some of the eggs and take the daily special home. When he arrived Prompto was smelting some steel outside. Through the window he could see that Luna was in the kitchen, but he couldn’t see exactly what she was doing.

“I didn’t know there was steel down there.” He commented as Prompto pulled out a big steel bar.

“Oh yeah, I found loads of other stuff down there too.” Prompto nodded towards a pile of things. There was some quartz, a frozen tear, and a big hunk of topaz. “I hit the jackpot today.”

“Wow, this is great. We need to plan another trip together and get more stuff.”

“We should.”

“Hey, what’s Luna doing?”

Prompto’s face dropped. “She’s cooking.” Prompto’s voice was suddenly strained.

“What’s she making?”

“Roasted chicken…”

“Cool, it’s been forever since I’ve had that.” Noctis helped Prompto smelt the last bar and organize their little smelting station.

They puttered around a bit before dinner. Prompto checked his beer and the preserves Luna had going. Noctis checked the few tappers they had and found one full of pine tar that he kept to store. Neither of them really needed to do any of that, but it was a good way to spend time until Luna popped her head out the window and called them both in for dinner.

Noctis ran in first, then stopped at the door. The chicken that was on the table was not nearly what he expected. When Ignis made chicken it was always brown with the legs trussed up with mashed potatoes and some sort of vegetable that he never ate. This chicken that Luna made was none of those. It was pale near the top while the tips of the legs were somehow black.

“Looks interesting Lu.” Noctis tried to say convincingly. He didn’t sound convincing to his own ears but Luna seemed content to pull out a big knife and get to work carving. He and Prompto sat down as Luna clumsily hacked away. She separated the legs revealing a red inside that set off warning bells in Noctis’ head. But he didn’t know enough about cooking chicken to really say anything.

“Uh, Lu.” Prompto said. “How long did you cook this for?”

“An hour.” She said.

“Then why is it pink inside?”

“Oh, well I cooked it low so that it was rare. Since you said you liked rare steak. I’ve never had rare chicken before so I wanted to try it.”

That sounded wrong. But Noctis didn’t get a chance to say something before Prompto reached over and bravely took the plate of half cooked chicken while Luna still wielded her knife.

“Hey, what are you doing?” She demanded.

“You can’t eat raw chicken Lu.” Prompto said. He unceremoniously dumped the entire thing in the trash then placed the plate in the sink. “We’d all get really sick.”

“What? Since when.”

“Since salmonella. Let’s just go to the saloon and we can all attempt something tomorrow.” He said diplomatically.

Eating at the saloon wasn’t too bad again. It was a Friday and most of the town was inside dancing to the music and having a good time. They all bought some beer and tried to ignore the fact that this was likely the seventh pot roast dinner they’d had in a month. When they were done they were all able to play pool with Sebastian, Abigail, and Sam. And Luna seemed to have calmed down enough to actually enjoy it. They’d figure everything out tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been asking people what their favorite seasonal dishes are, so if anyone has something tasty they always make during a specific season let me know.


	7. The Long Gone Days of Summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where everyone learns to cook and clean and the spirit moving the pot is finally revealed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya'll ready for fall? Cause I'm ready for fall. Luna and Noctis are ready for fall.
> 
> Go Go Pumpkin Spice!

Stardew Valley had intermittent heat waves where the temperature reached above 100 degrees for a few days before backing down. It was during one of these heat waves that Prompto woke up to a noticeable shaking. A feeling he wasn’t unfamiliar with. Insomnia had the occasional earthquake, and it was rarely something to worry about. He rolled over and tried to get back to sleep.

He didn’t. Luna had immediately shot up after the three second long shake and was shaking both him and Noctis until they both had their eyes open. “Did you guys feel that?”

“The earthquake?” Prompto groaned. “Yes, go back to bed.”

“We just had an earthquake Prompto! We have to check that everything’s okay.”

“It wasn’t that bad Lu.” Noctis pleaded. He was stubbornly trying to keep under the covers and return to sleep despite Luna’s shaking.

“We have to check! Don’t you know what an earthquake can do to a farm?”

“Yes I do Luna. I’ve lived through many of them.” Prompto said.

“Get up!”

So Prompto and Noctis were awake at four in the morning checking on the farm and all of the artisanal goods which were all very, very fine. He tried to not be annoyed at it, Luna didn’t get earthquakes and would understandably 

“Everything’s fine Lu.” Noctis whined. “And since I’m awake I think I’m going to go to the mines.”

“This early?” Prompto asked.

“Yeah. Maybe the monsters will be asleep.”

“M’kay don’t die.”

Once Noctis was gone he and Luna got to work putting the melon jam into jars and just trying to stay awake. He would probably take a nap in the middle of the day, but he wanted to hold off and see if he could make it without that. It would certainly make sleeping more easy since the heat made sleeping at night dreadful.

At five in the morning the mail arrived. The woman carried a package with her and had him sign off on it before she could leave. Luna poked her head over his shoulder after she left. “What’s that?”

“It’s a little label making system.” He said. They sat down on the porch and he unpackaged the little device. When they came they had to all swear off internet and cellphones. So he had to get creative in finding something. The tablet he purchased could connect to the internet, but he switched the tab off before booting it up. With it they had several boxes of moderately sized labels and a small label maker. “Since we’ve got a good system going we need consistency.”

He held the tablet out to her. “Would you do the honors?”

She took it, “I would love to.”

Luna set to work making a simple design for their label. Noctis had described what Carbuncle had looked to him one night after a beer so she put that on the top in blue with a black background and “Carbuncle Farm Jam” in the center. On the bottom she labeled what flavor it was. The only thing that changed between that and the beer labels were the words, and soon they had labels printed out for all of the melon jam produced that day.

“It’s like we’re a real farm now.” Luna said as she piled a case of jam into the box.

“Were we not one before?”

“We were, but this makes it seem real. We have a name, we’re selling things. People are buying it. We’re finally getting it off the ground.”

“Yeah. I can’t believe we’re actually managing to do it. I thought we’d crash and burn and have to go back after a month.”

Luna laughed, “I did too.”

They sent the cases of jam out to be shipped and then headed down to Pierre’s for cooking ingredients. Prompto thought it best to stick to simple things that he knew how to do himself, but Luna had been rummaging around the house and found his grandfather’s old cookbook. He had her look through it to find a recipe she liked before they headed out to purchase ingredients.

“So we’ll need pasta, butter, garlic, and parmesan.” She said. He followed her around Pierre’s shop and helped her find ingredients.

“Have you ever made pasta before?” He asked.

“No.”

“I’ll show you how to do that.” He helped her take the ingredients back and then got started on dinner. Making pasta was second nature to him and not something he typically thought about so he slowed it down for Luna. He gave the abridged explanation on the differences between fresh pasta and dried then had her melt the butter and saute the garlic while the pasta simmered. The garlic filled the house with a lovely smell that officially pushed Prompto from okay to starving. They added the pasta to the butter and sprinkled the cheese on top, sitting down to eat just as Noctis came home.

“Hey guys, did you know there was a hot spring in town?”

“No? No one said anything about a hot springs.”

“Why would people be in a hot springs during the summer?” Luna said to herself.

“There is a hot springs!” Noctis protested. “Here I’ll show ya.”

He grabbed Luna’s arm and began leading her off the farm up the mountains. Prompto quickly ate two large mouthfuls of pasta then followed them out while still chewing. Noctis lead them towards Robin’s cabin, then he made a sharp left down a path Prompto was completely sure wasn’t there before. It spilled into a large cavern with what was definitely a hot spring and a train stop. This was definitely confusing, and a little worrying, absolutely no one had mentioned a hot spring being just up the mountains. It wasn’t even listed in the tour pamphlets. Where did it come from?

“Wow, I don’t remember this.” Luna said. “How did you find it?”

“I just walked up here cause I thought this was the path for the mines.”

Prompto snorted, “Noct you need to learn how to navigate this town, we’ve been here for months.”

“Well I found this didn’t I?” Noctis protested. “Let’s go inside.”

They found the entrance and headed on in. At the entrance it branched off into male and female changing areas. Luna went off to the women’s side while both he and Noctis checked out the mens. It was a fairly typical set up. Some showers, a storage area, and at the end there was a place to walk into the water and head out to the main sitting area. But with the heat outside neither of them had the urge to test the waters. They met back up with Luna outside.

“Well, that was certainly interesting.” He said.

“Yeah, I can’t believe this was hiding up here all this time.” Noctis said.

“I can’t wait until it’s cool in fall.” Luna said. “I’ve never been in a hotsprings before.”

“Never?” Prompto said, surprised. “There’s a bunch in Insomnia.”

“Yeah.” Noctis said. “I used to invite Prom up to the royal one and then Ignis would bring up a bunch of eggs and… make hot spring eggs Prompto can I take some money?”

“Why?” Prompto did not trust that random train of thought Noctis spat out. He did not want to see their hard earned money spent on a whim. And Noctis had a lot of whims.

“Because.”

“Because why?”

“Because I want to buy eggs.”

“How many eggs?”

“Prom please?”

He sighed. A pack of eggs was fifty gold so he pulled out their wallet and passed over a hundred since he was sure that Noctis would fuck this up somehow.

“Thank you!”

Noctis raced off down towards Pierre’s for his carton of eggs while Prompto and Luna returned home to finish their food. They then handled chores for several hours until Noctis returned carrying twelve warm eggs in his very red arms.

“Help me!” He pleaded. Prompto scooped a handful out from Noctis’ hand before the rest were carefully dumped onto the counter.

“This is a lot of eggs.” Luna said.

“Yep. Because I nailed it.” Noctis reached over for a bowl and after some fiddling got into position to crack an egg into the bowl. He hesitated twice before barreling threw and smacking it, rather heavy handedly, on the rim of the bowl. It cracked in half and spilled partially over the counter but mostly in the bowl. Prompto leaned over to see that Noctis had managed to create a good looking hot spring egg with a milky white and a creamy yolk.

“I did it!” Noctis yelled. He raised both his clean and eggy hand in the air and hopping up and down.

Luna clapped, “Yay! You did it!”

“One of the many ways to cook an egg.” Prompto said.

“Well, one of three.” Noctis said.

“No, one of many. There’s, like, a hundred ways or something.”

“Really?” Noctis’ eyes went big with wonder. “Should I do them all?”

Prompto refused to answer that, he didn’t need Noctis to start cooking pounds and pounds of eggs. Which he inevitably would do if given enough approval. As it was it took them a week to get through all the soft boiled eggs Noctis made initially and Prompto was very content to take a nice, long break from eggs

With the kitchen installed Prompto started taking steps to keep some of their produce for meals. Noctis and Luna needed to learn how to cook, and they’d spent way too much money on the kitchen to just go out all the time. It was a little difficult to do. Noctis wasn’t a vegetable kind of guy and Luna tried recipes way out of her skill range. But Prompto was around and he helped out when he could, coaching them through the basics. Things did eventually turn around. Noctis made an ugly blueberry pie that tasted good, and then managed to make a spicy pepper stir fry without burning down the house. Luna successfully grilled corn one night for dinner, which felt like a good stepping stone. After a few weeks of lessons they were successfully turning out edible food without torching the kitchen.

With that done Prompto had more time to focus on the farm. The first round of vegetables and fruit were picked and ready to be pickled or jammed. So it was time to focus on creating a better quality of fruits and vegetables to improve their products especially since they didn’t have more space to harvest their crops. He knew several ways to basically increase the worth of their things, with Insomnia so wealthy it was inevitable that farmers would focus on tricks to make their product look better rather than focus on techniques that increased yield. He knew of a couple personally, but many of them required selecting for preferred qualities and would take time. Prompto started on that, picking out the better looking produce to harvest seeds from, but they likely wouldn’t see any benefit from it since they only had a few weeks of summer left. But there were a couple other tricks he knew of that could increase the value of their harvests.

“So there’s this trick to making really fancy fruit.” Prompto said as they headed out to deal with their chores.

“Fancy fruit?” Noctis asked.

“Yeah, you know how at Nordenfells they would sell six perfect looking strawberries for fifty luciennes?”

“Yeah. I didn’t realize that was fancy.”

“Strawberries are normally, like, four luciennes Noct.”

Noctis was clearly surprised by this, but he wisely did not provide any further comment that would highlight just how out of touch he was with the common people. Prompto took them both down to the far edge of their farming square where the second batch of melons were growing. Most were still very green and relatively small looking, resting in green vines.

“So you guys remember getting those really sweet, perfectly round melons at all those fancy groceries?”

“I don’t remember personally buying them.” Luna said. “But yes I do, I didn’t realize that they didn’t always look like that.”

“You need to do something very specific to get them that way.” He reached over to a vine with three melons growing on it. “For melons you need to make sure only one or two share a vine.”

As Prompto reached over to chop off a melon Noctis reached out and grasped his wrist with a worrying firmness. “Are you saying that all of those fancy fruit are only fancy because of how many there are on the vine?”

“...Yeah…” He said, a little worried.

Noctis let out a heavy, angry sigh. “That’s stupid.” He yanked his hand away. “Ignis spent all this money on fruit because the stupid fruit was by it’s stupid self and for what? Oh, it looks pretty or something.”

“Noctis are you okay?” Luna asked gently.

“Yeah I’m fine I guess.”

They gave the royal treatment to the best looking row and collected the half grown melons for dinner that night. Noctis and Luna were not entirely convinced that they were edible until Prompto grilled them with salt and served them for dessert with some ice cream. The next morning Luna took some to experiment with some personal jam and Noctis seemed a little less miffed that they’d gone through the effort of harvesting.

At the end of the week they all headed to the saloon, for once willingly and not out of necessity. Visiting on Fridays quickly became a weekly event after Abigail and Sebastian invited them down for pool one week. It was a fun little break that typically ended without anyone getting hurt. When they arrived everyone was already there so Prompto hurriedly both them all a round to get the night started.

Abigail and Luna sat down with beers to watch the Noctis v Sam ping pong game. Prompto knew for a fact that this was the third game of ping pong Noctis had ever played, he would’ve put money on it if he could.

“We’ve formed a private server in Dungeons and Battles” Sebastian said. “If you wanted to join you guys can.”

“I would, but we actually don’t have internet on the farm.” He said. That was intentional. It would hopefully keep people from finding them.

“You can come use mine if you want.” Sebastian offered. “I actually a few old computers I can give you if you want.”

“Really? I mean-.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Sebastian patted his back. “But if you guys have fish leftover, bring it by. I love sashimi.”

Noctis lost horribly and had to buy Sam a whole pizza as a reward. Well he had to ask Prompto for the money to buy the pizza. It was moments like that when Prompto wondered if he should just let Noctis and Luna both in on their finances. He couldn’t imagine it being fun to have to ask for every little cent.

They all kept ordering round after round until midnight when the saloon closed. Prompto was uncomfortably warm, but the nights were cooling as they approached autumn and the chill cooled his skin as they left the saloon, taking with them most of the chatter and noise. Prompto carefully followed Abigail who was following Luna down the path towards the forest.

“And then he said ‘I bet you can’t beat ten slimes’.” Abigail said, words not entirely clear. “So I showed him, and then I took the diamond. Fun day.”

Prompto had not paid attention to the beginning of that story, and he decided that ending was too interesting to warrant a beginning. They all entered the forest through the east entrance outside of Marnie’s ranch.

“Finally.” Luna headed towards the pier. “I haven’t been swimming in ages!”

Prompto would have followed her into the slightly suspect lake if not for the fact that he had suddenly come to the realization that they were missing half of their party. Noctis, Sam, and Sebastian were all gone and Prompto couldn’t remember when exactly they got separated. He decided to not worry about it. As long as Noctis didn’t get separated from Sam or Sebastian then everything would be fine. Prompto ignored it and focused on keeping his head above water as he swam.

In the morning he and Luna had to pick Noctis up from Harvey’s while attempting to nurse what had to be the worst hangover of their lives. Prompto didn’t know if it was from jumping in the lake or the second round of beers they had when they crawled home late past midnight, but the sharp, shooting pain in his head was relentless.

Thankfully Noctis didn’t look much better.

“Where did you go last night?” Luna asked as she did a third of the work keeping Noctis upright.

“I don’t know. I just remember passing out near train tracks.”

“Sounds like he was near the hot springs.” Prompto said.

“Gaaaaaahhhhh!” Noctis moaned. “I’m never drinking again!”

“Heard that one before.”

“I’m serious.”

“I’m sure you are Noctis.” Luna said. “Let’s get to work.”

The melons needed to be harvested. Prompto took care of that while Luna planted corn seeds and Noctis got started on melon preserves. They all moved sluggishly through the process, Prompto was not unfamiliar with a beer induced hangover, but this one was a doozy. He partially hoped he was just battling a cold and not slowly dying.

Prompto went to check the mail as a break from the harvesting. The box was stuffed with an advertisement from Pierre’s, the literal only place to buy seeds in Pelican Town, the fall menu from the saloon, and a letter from the mayor about a moonlight jellies festival happening that night.

He did not feel like going at that moment, but after he got the work done and some food in him he felt less like he was dying and more like he just had a minor cold. His body was slightly sore, but he powered through it and then he made some pasta with some tomatoes and that did wonders in making him feel better.

After lunch he felt good enough to go out and bottle his beer. Most of it was an old recipe that he brewed with his parents, but he had one keg full of an experimental wine made from some of the melons that Gus special ordered. He bottled both of them and labeled them, leaving the beer to be collected and taking the wine down to Gus’ saloon.

“Noctis you know you’re going to have to pick twolip soon.” Luna said.

Noctis let out a horrified gasp.

“Noctis please make this easy.”

“Easy for who?”

Prompto walked over to the flower while Noctis and Luna fought. It was already starting to wilt a bit from the cooler nights.

“Hey. Hey Noct.” Prompto said.

Once Prompto was confident he had Noctis’ undivided attention he reached down, wrapped his hand around the body of the flower, and yanked it up. Pulling with it the roots and some dirt.

Noctis’ face twisted to complete and utter horror and didn’t budge as Prompto walked over and hand twolip to him. “We’ll get you another one. It’s a mercy killing.”

“Where was the mercy for me?” Noctis wailed. He clutched the flower to his chest as he laid on the ground for ten minutes. But when neither he nor Luna stopped to entertain him he realized that the dramatics were over and went to sell it. Prompto busied himself with piling the wine and beer on a cart and taking it over to Gus for the next day.

When he arrived back at the farmhouse he found Noctis making dinner, which was thankfully not as terrifying a sight as it once was. Noctis typically made sweet meals and he had a bowl of batter mixing while Luna was busy making iced tea.

“Whatcha making?”

“Pancakes.” Luna said. “Noctis said he had a craving.”

Noctis knew how to make pancakes so Prompto went ahead and relaxed for half an hour while they finished things up. He didn’t get to sit down and just not do anything often so he sunk in the chair and fell into a light sleep until he was called over for dinner.

“Wow, these look so good.” He said. Noctis had managed to serve mostly circular pancakes that were thick and brown. The kitchen smelled of sweets and blueberries. Luna handed him the jar of freshly foraged maple syrup which he used to generously coat the pancakes.

“My cooking skills have leveled up!” Noctis announced. “I know eggs, and now I know pancakes!”

“Next cupcakes.” Luna said.

“Next cupcakes.”

At ten they all headed out to the beach where the entire village had set up a small celebration. Marnie was handing out marshmallows and chocolate for smores that the kids roasted over a small fire. Sam, a man with absolutely no sense of self-preservation, was drinking a pale ale as he, Sebastian, and a hungover Abigail sat by the pier.

Luna left to talk with Leah and Penny while Noctis went to check in with Willy about autumn fish. Prompto headed down the pier and sat down on the edge where his feet could keep back and forth unperturbed. 

“You’re looking alive.” Abigail said.

“You’re not.”

“I know. I’m never going to do this again.”

“Noctis said the same thing. I give you both a week.”

“Oh ha ha.” She groaned then left to find her mother and retrieve a handful of painkillers.

“You ever see the midnight jellies?” Sebastian asked.

“Nope. I didn’t even know they were a thing. What are they?”

“You’ll see. They’ll probably show up soon.” He leaned over so he could speak without being overheard. “It’s supposed to be a romantic evening for people. Penny’s gonna come down and ask Sam out while they’re out.”

“Awww.”

“It’s kinda cliche.”

“What, you’re not thinking of doing the same to Abigail?”

Sebastian’s mouth shut so fast his teeth clicked. His jaw shifted for a moment, then his brows furrowed. “I didn’t hear that.”

“Of course not.”

“They’re almost here!” The mayor announced. “I’m releasing the boat!”

The people on the pier shifted. Robin sought out Demetrius and Penny made her way over to Sam. Prompto scanned the pier for Luna and Noctis then headed over towards them. He joined them and they all waited quietly and watched the glowing jellies swim through the water. They lit up the horizon, but quickly made their way towards the pier. Dozens of glowing jellies danced under the water, filling the sea and lighting up the entire area. It was completely mesmerizing.

Luna reached out and took his hand, squeezed it gently as a jelly circled a pillar. They’d made it half a year, further than he expected, and they stuck it out long enough to see this. Hopefully the hardest parts were just behind them.

They returned to the farmhouse after watching the jellies and socializing a bit more. By then most of the people had left as well. Once home they all fell asleep rather quickly, huddling close to stave away the growing chill.

In the morning Prompto woke up early before Luna and Noctis. He went out to see all but the corn had died off. Noctis’ fruit trees were producing, so they at least had that until the newest round of seeds started producing.

The mailman had delivered several letters, some from people asking for help, some more advertisements, a set of coupons for Joja. Prompto sifted through and found an interesting one on the bottom.

A small group of chefs wanted to source local produce for their high end restaurants in Accordo’s capital. Prompto considered the letter for a moment. A good opportunity, but one that would take him into Accordo for several days. He considered ignoring it just for that reason. But they all had finally settled in. Noctis and Luna would be fine on their own. It was the season of change and expanding. It would be beneficial to set up these kinds of connections and income sooner rather than later.

He walked over to the closet and pulled the old pot Luna had thrown into the back. It was cracked when he’d first found it and Luna’s roughhouse only cracked it further. But Prompto paid it no mind as he set it down in front of the doorway to their room. This was the last time he would do this so he wasn’t concerned with how it looked. All it needed to do was stay together long enough for Luna and Noctis to trip over it once they woke up.


	8. Two's Company

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Prompto leaves for a week it's up for Luna and Noctis to take care of the farm. Will they manage? Spoiler warning: no they will not.

“I’m going to be gone for a week.” Prompto said to her the first day of autumn. They were just about to head out after a breakfast of pancakes with jam and some tea and the nice breakfast did not prepare Luna for such a bombshell. “There’s a few new fancy restaurants opening up in the capital and they want to source from this valley so I’m going to go up and show off our jams and beers. Then I’m going to visit with an old pen pal for a few days.”

“You have a friend in Accordo?” Noctis asked, missing all of the important questions that should have been asked.

“Yeah, Tim. My pen pal.”

“I don’t remember you having a pen pal.”

“I’ve mentioned him. What did you think you were my only friend?”

“...”

“Anyway.” Prompto sighed, “I’ll leave a list of things to do and plenty of money. Do you guys want any souvenirs from the capitol?”

“Oh! Can you bring me some of their specialty cheeses?” She asked. “If you get enough we can make fondue over the winter.”

“I think clothes. Like a scarf or something. Doesn’t it get cold up here?” Noctis asked.

“It gets really cold.” Prompto said. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

Luna decided to turn and focus on chores rather than question Prompto further. It was the first day of autumn and a quick assessment showed rows and rows of dead plants. The corn had managed to survive so they kept away from that row as they prepared the soil before heading out to Pierre’s for more seeds. Prompto bought plenty of wheat then some amaranth, cranberries, eggplants, grapes, pumpkins, yams, and a fairy rose for Noctis to replace twolip. By the time they got back, planted, and watered everything the sky was already growing dark. She stayed outside to put some starfruit to make jam and Prompto went inside to make a pasta with the tomatoes they’d picked in the past season. A filling, but simple meal that she enjoyed since she and Noctis weren’t always able to deliver a good meal every time they cooked like Prompto.

The next morning Prompto left on the seven o’ clock train. Luna gave him a small farewell peck before seeing him off and returning back to the farm. Noctis was up and already looking at the list that Prompto had left scribbled in his tiny penmanship on the top of a stack of sticky notes.

“Check gravity of beer, bottle when it’s consist over three days. Reserve ten bottles. What the hell is gravity?” He asked. Luna looked down at the note to see that that’s exactly what was written.

“Uhm. I don’t know.” They both walked over to analyze the kegs standing near the house. There were no answers on the kegs themselves there so they dug through the house until they found a dusty book on beer brewing. After some reading they went out and took the measurement using the small beaker Prompto clearly used for the readings. Next to each keg there was a paper with a list of numbers Luna wrote the number on all of them and hoped that was what she was supposed to do.

Noctis helped her with the watering then they both decided to head on down to the forest for fishing since they didn’t have much else to do. Luna’s fishing line was old and dusty, but she brushed it off and they headed down south towards the river for some fishing. On their way there they passed by Marnie’s ranch which was more active than usual as Marnie stood outside with one of the cows brushing it down and checking it’s teeth. Noctis, apparently, had standing permission to pet Marnie’s animals and he immediately rushed over to pet the cow’s soft head.

“Awww, Tata’s so big.” Noctis cooed. “She was so small just a few months ago.”

“Oh yes she has.” Marnie said, “And now she’s ready to go off to her new family. I’m going to miss her.”

“New family?” Luna asked.

“Yes. He’s coming to pick her up today. She was to stay with me just until she started producing milk.”

“You raise cows for people?”

“Yes. Are you three interested in one? It would be a good addition to your farm, and fresh milk is very healthy for you.”

“Oh, uhm, we will think about it.” She said rather than immediately saying yes. “I’ll have to check our finances.”

“Well let me know kids. I have a few older cows who need a good home that I’ll see for cheaper. I’ve also got chickens. If you get experienced I might even sell you a few ducks or pigs.”

“Oh, well thank you. We will certainly keep you in mind if we choose to make a purchase.”

She dragged Noctis away before she buckled under the urge to just purchase one. Marnie’s cows were so cute and she’d never had a pet. They cast their lines, but she waited until they had a small collection of fish going before breaching the subject.

“Noctis, Prompto left us five thousand gold. Do you think that’s enough for a cow?” She said hesitantly.

“Hmmm… Maybe? Like, how much can they be? A hundred gold?”

“Exactly. They’re probably a hundred gold.” She thought for a moment. “And I think Prompto would appreciate it. Having a source of milk means we wouldn’t have to buy it. We’d make the money back ten fold once they’re old enough.”

Noctis seemed to understand what she was getting at. “Yeah! And maybe some chickens too, so we don’t have to buy eggs at Pierre’s again.”

“Noctis why do you need eggs?”

“Uhm…. to cook?”

“You mean to take up to the hotsprings by the dozen?”

“Yeah…”

“How about we put a pin in that.” She said carefully. “And focus on getting cows.”

They cut their fishing short to head back to Marnie’s to purchase a baby cow to bring back to the barn. She figured a hundred for the cow and another hundred for food. This ended up being a bad assumption when they got there and Marnie switched from open to questioning.

“Do you have a silo?” Marnie asked. “A barn?”

She thought for a moment. “No…?”

“I’m sorry dear, but I cannot consider selling one of my animals to you until you have a silo and a barn. They need a place to sleep and you need to cut hay to store in the winter.”

“I see… where would I get these items?”

“Robin would be able to build these for you.”

She and Noctis immediately made the trek up to Robin’s cabin, arriving just before she closed up shop to spend the evening with her family. Luna might’ve felt bad for keeping Robin, but she was determined to see this through and get a cow before Prompto returned home.

“I can make you the silo.” Robin said when the situation was explained. “It’ll take me three days to build. But you’ll need another thousand for me to make the barn.”

“Oh. Well I’m sure we’ll get the money by then.” She paid up a hundred gold to have the silo started the next day. Neither of them were looking forward to the noise of construction, but if they could get something done without Prompto’s help then it was worth it.

Robin started on the silo the next day before the sun had even risen, waking both her and Noctis up to get their chores done. It wasn’t the most pleasant of sounds and Luna headed out to forage and get away from it all. At around noon she headed into town to cut through to the mountains. The path leading up to the mountains passed by a trailer where a young woman, Luna immediately remembered that he name was Penny, in a yellow button up and an orange skirt was bent over a small, dying tree. She had a small watering can and was practically drowning a small try.

Luna wasn’t the most adept at farming as Prompto, but she knew rot when she saw it. Noctis had left around many brochures warning of the many ways a tree could die. The little stump Penny was trying to save was clearly dead.

“What kind of tree is it?” She asked.

“Oh!” The girl jumped then turned to face Luna. “It’s an apricot sapling. Or, it’s supposed to be.”

“How long have you been trying to grow it?”

“Since spring. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, it’s supposed to be bigger by now.”

Luna reached out and ran her thumb over the rotting base. “It’s dead. It’s not getting enough nutrients from the soil.”

Penny’s face fell. “Oh…”

“But it’s okay. You can fix soil. If you clear off some of the debris and work the soil the next one you plant will be fine.”

Penny looked out at the dirty yard. Beer bottles were strewn about and a tire had been there so long dirt had accumulated on top of it. It would be a lot of work to make the dirt that surrounded her trailer healthy enough to sustain plants.

“I don’t think I can do all that and get it planted in time for spring.” She sighed. “I have two other starters. Do you want them?”

“Oh, I couldn’t take from you.”

“You’re not taking from me,” She shuffled inside and brought out two small apricot saplings. “You have a farm right? I’m sure they’ll grow healthy over there.”

“Oh, thank you,” She said as Penny handed the two sizable saplings to her. “Why were you trying to grow these?”

“Oh well…” Penny looked down, “I was hoping to encourage my mother to eating healthier by getting some free food. I got the saplings by taking the pits from apricots that people had thrown out.”

“I see. Will you walk with me to the farm? Do you have time?”

“Sure.” She took one of the saplings and they both began the trek down to Carbuncle Farm.

“I’ve always wondered what your farm looked like. Growing up we used to play hide and seek in the weeds.”

“Those weeds? We had to chop them down. It’s begun to look much nicer, we got rid of the giant tree stumps and the boulders too.”

“I bet it looks beautiful. You guys coming here has definitely helped. When Jojamart came in everyone started shopping there. It’s cheap, but have you seen their produce? Small and sometimes moldy. It’s nice to get fresh, seasonal stuff now.”

“Oh, the mayor sells to you?”

“Kind of. I normally go to his house early in the morning to pick something out before they get shipped out. Most people can do that, but no one really gets up early enough to go. Jojamart’s just easier for most people.”

“That’s a shame, but we aren’t hurting for sales. In fact Prompto’s gone up to talk to some people looking to open up restaurants in the capitol. By the way what do you do?”

“Oh, I teach Vincent and Jas.”

“How did you get that job?”

“The closest grade school is three hours away and I have a teaching credential,” She shrugged. “I meant to leave and teach in the city, but I decided to wait on that until they were both old enough to study on their own.”

“How long will that be? They’re very young.”

“Probably five or ten years. I don’t mind it though. It’s good to have a positive impact on someone’s life.”

That was unfair, at least to Luna. She didn’t think anyone should be forced to put their life on hold like that. But she didn’t feel like it was her place to comment. If all Penny wanted to do was to teach, than teaching two children might be more rewarding than trying to get through to thirty kids. She tried to see the bright side of that as they continued to talk on their way up to the farm.

When they arrived at the farm Robin was happily working at a new silo. The base was already filled out and she was laying bricks on top of that. Luna took survey of the land. The trees would look good further from the house to fill out their fruit tree grove. She set hers down by the house and Penny did the same.

“Oh, are you guys getting animals soon?”

“Oh yes, we’re going to purchase a cow.”

“That’s amazing. I love cows. I can’t believe you three have only been working at it for a few months. You’ve made so much progress.”

Luna’s chest fluttered at the praise, “We have, haven’t we?”

They planted the trees on the other side of the ones already planted. Prompto had a little mock up of the farm organization and the corner near the farmhouse was for produce while the corner past that was for trees and it was easier to fill it from produce towards the exit rather than the other way around. She promised Penny that she could come and take what she needed when they starting producing and the girl left the farm looking much happier than before.

Since it was later Luna headed down to the forest rather than the mountains for foraging. She found several handfuls of blueberries after rusling through some bushes, a pound of plums, and a handful of chanterelles. The chanterelles were particularly exciting. She remembered eating them growing up in Tenebrae, and she knew they were expensive.

She should have sold the chanterelles, but they had a kitchen and she’d only found a few handfulls. She kept them in her bag as she made a run to the saloon to buy some bread and oil.

At the farmhouse she set her things down and washed the pound of chanterelles. As she did that Noctis came back with four salmon hanging on a line. Noctis set three of them into the freezer then went to fillet the last one. It was a harrowing experience. Noctis immediately went for a long, large knife and he butchered it clumsily. He gutted the fish before realizing he had to get the head off, so he haphazardly swung down and lopped off part of it’s head and body. Guts spilled on the floor as he knocked them down while trying to harvest a fillet from the body. After much struggle he had two, slightly anemic looking fillets that he successfully deboned, and a floor full of fish blood and guts that had to be cleaned before they continued. Luna tried to not be angry at the smell. He’d tried, and she likely wouldn’t have done much better.

With the kitchen more sanitary she continued with dinner. The salmon went into the oven with some salt because she didn’t really know how else one cooked fish. Nor was she confident in how hot the oven should be or how long, or what the difference between broil and bake were. It went in under some random settings and she had Noctis practically sit in front of it and hope for the best.

Next came the mushrooms. They weren’t meat so she, hopefully, couldn’t get sick from undercooking it. She put them in a pan with some garlic and olive oil until they were toasty and smelled heavenly. Noctis looked at the pan suspiciously. To her the chanterelles looked appetizing, but while Noctis had expanded in his eating mushrooms were still holding out to be the most difficult hurdle. He stuck one on a fork and analyzed it as Luna fixed too plates with equal portion of salmon, mushrooms, and bread.

“It’s not a book.”

“I’m just trying to tell if it’s mushy or not.” He said.

“You know you have to eat it to tell.”

He closed his eyes, plugged his nose, and shoved the slice into his mouth. She watched him chew slowly, in an almost exaggerated for a full minute before he seemed satisfied.

“It’s not that bad.” He said after some contemplation before taking his plate.

Luna considered it a success when she found the salmon actually edible and Noctis’ plate clear. Two success in one day, three if one counted the silo. Prompto would be very happy when he got back.

Half of the silo was done when Luna went out the next morning. Robin was focused on laying bricks while Luna got to work packaging up the preserves. The starfruit preserves came out especially nice. She packaged one up for Penny then placed the rest to be sold.

When she was done she checked on the produce. The bok choy were ripe so she harvested them, reserving some for dinner and the rest to preserved. Noctis went to the mines for the day and came back with a giant bruise on his leg with plenty of ore and quartz. He laid out on the bed with an ice pack while she sauteed some bok choy with spices then laid it over passable rice. Noctis ate it, though with significantly more reluctance then the chanterelles from the day before.

The next day she watered the produce and helped Noctis figure out how to bottle beer. They lost what had to be three bottles of the stuff just trying to figure it out, but the ones they did manage to fill looked just as if Prompto had done them. They went to be sold and then Luna finally felt confident in her and Noctis’ abilities to handle the farm on their own. They’d gotten so much done and Prompto still had four days until he got home.

“Uh… Lu.” Noctis said. He was looking through the notepad Prompto had written up. “I think we messed up…”

“Why?” She said, suddenly very worried.

“He had more on the other sheets…” Noctis said.

She took the pad from his hand and flipped to the next note on the sticky note pad. Prompto had only used half the page and she’d assumed that the few points was the end of it. No. There were three other pages to that:

*Build herb garden box: 10ft by 4ft  
*Have Robin build a mill  
*Also a shed  
*Plant extra row of pumpkins  
*Build another keg

“...Oh…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So earlier someone requested some Penny interactions and I thankfully found a spot for her in this chapter, I hope they liked it.


	9. Crisis, Cows, and Cheesemaking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crisis averted. Kinda.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Technically I'm late, but in my defense I was making jam all day and not editing or programming things that I should've been editing/programming. It's apple and pear with pumpkin spice and it is good.
> 
> Also I'm hosting a promlunoct weekend over on tumblr (and twitter technically) head over here: https://promlunoctweekend.tumblr.com/ we're in the prompt voting phase.

They were in deep, deep trouble.

Almost all of the money was gone and what they had coming from the beer wouldn’t be nearly enough to start on the mill that they were supposed to have put the order in for rather than the silo currently being built. Robin would be another few days before Robin finished their current project, so even if she finished there’d be no time for her to work on it and complete it. Noctis had a feeling it was a bad idea to start on the barn, but he, like Luna, had been seduced by the idea of finally owning an animal.

“Prompto’s going to be so disappointed when he gets back.” Noctis said. He followed her up the path towards the Pierre’s for seeds. They both kept their eyes out for fruit and mushrooms to sell, but it wouldn’t be enough to fix what they did and the thought just made him word vomit. “I mean, he’s worked really hard to make sure we all survive this and now it’s all gone. What’s he gonna do when he gets back?”

Luna whipped around and grabbed him by his shoulders. “Noctis! Please! Please stop talking.”

His mouth snapped shut. Luna was clearly on the warpath to fix things, and at this point he was content to follow it even though he didn’t know what the plan was. He was completely at a loss for how to fix things anyway.

As they headed down the road they passed by the bus stop. Unusually, there was a bus sitting idly as a woman with a thick bush of curls and a red hat quickly unloaded her luggage from the storage area at the bottom.

“Oh shit!” He yelled. Noctis grabbed Luna’s hand and quickly pulled her down down the road towards Pierre’s. They both ran until they were safely inside Pierre’s shop out of sight.

“What Noctis?” Luna demanded through short breaths. “Why did we run?”

“Sania’s here!” He said. He peaked out through the door to see Sania leisurely walking into town. “She’s here, and if she sees us she’ll tell Gladio!”

“Who’s Sania?”

“Gladio’s weird friend slash crush.” He ducked under as Sania passed by the shop. “What the fuck is she doing here?”

“What are you two doing?” Pierre asked, causing Noctis to jump and clip his shoulder on the door handle. “No Prompto today?”

“He’s on vacation.” Luna said hurriedly. “Uhm - can we get some pumpkin seeds?”

“Are you okay Noctis?”

“He’s fine.” Luna interrupted, “Ten packets please.”

Pierre raised an eyebrow, but filled their request without further comment. When they left the shop Sania was out of view so they dashed home to plant the new seed and finish up the rest of their chores. Robin was still happily hammering away at the bad choice silo and she seemed content to not notice them ignoring her. They counted their money and were once again disappointed when it was lower than they thought it should be. 

“Okay, so we need ways to make money.” Luna said. “Mines?”

“Maybe. But they’re hit or miss. I’ve gone down sometimes and come back with almost nothing.”

“Okay. Foraging it is. It’s salmon season. Go fish for some salmon, as many as you can, and don’t get caught by-”

“Hey farmers!” A man announced. Noctis physically jumped two inches into the air from the shock. He spun around to see that Demetrius had arrived from the east entrance with Sania. Both of them carried thick binders as they purposefully strutted past the vegetables towards him and Luna.

“I thought I recognized those names. Hi Noctis, who’s this?”

“She’s, uhh-”

“We were hoping to do a little experiment.” Demetrius interrupted. “That cave over there, our research shows that it’s the perfect spot to either attract fruit bats or to grow mushrooms. Which would you prefer?”

“Grow mush -?”

“I knew they’d pick mushrooms.” Sania said. “Smart kids. We’ll get started then, thank you. This will help our research immensely.”

They both walked off to fiddle with their “experiment” while he and Luna both ran through a series of emotions slowly going from surprise to horror as they realized that not only had Sania seen them, but that she’d recognized Noctis and therefore knew that he was living here now..

“This is bad.” Luna said with a quiet horror. “ She recognized you and knows that you’re here. This is it, she’s going to tell someone and then we’ll have to go back and be sacrificed.”

“No! Wait!” Noctis said. He put a hand on her shoulder, attempting to project calmness so that they could both think clearly. This wasn’t the end, not yet. “I have an idea...”

“...”

“....”

“...And?”

“Oh, uh, well. We bribe her!”

“Bribe her? With what?” She asked sharply.

He mentally ran down the list of what they had. Sania wouldn’t be interested in farming tools or the stack of fish in their fridge. They could give out some goods, but Noctis doubted a jar of preserves would be enough to buy anyone’s silence.

“Beer.” He said off handedly. “Prompto kept a couple of bottles. We’ll offer those.”

“...Beer?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t even know if she drinks beer.”

“But it’s our best shot.” A true but utterly depressing statement. “So we need to get her alone and offer her the beer.”

“Prompto’s going to be so angry when he gets home.” Luna sighed, “First the money and now his beer.”

“He’ll understand… maybe.”

“Well do what you need to do.” She instructed, “You fix this and I’ll try to figure out what we’ll do about the mill.”

“Divide and conquer.”

“That’s not what that saying actually means, but yes.”

Noctis knew that Prompto had kept several bottles of the white and a few more of the pale ale. He also knew that Prompto had a hidden stash of wheat beer hidden behind a bag of vegetables that they were saving for some undisclosed reason. Noctis took one of each and held onto them as Demetrius and Sania set things up inside the cave. The two seemed hard a work so Noctis waited and waited until they decided to break and headed down to the saloon. It was then that Noctis silently followed them while carefully holding the beer.

The two slowly ate their meal while talking then headed down to the forest to examine the frogs of the area. The frog hunting took about three hours and involved some sort of testing? From the skin? He really wasn’t sure what they were doing. Noctis fished and kept an eye on them then went back to the farm when they headed back to Demetrius’ house together.

Luna was putting handfuls of chanterelles into the sales bin. A sight that was a little bit sad. He’d, shockingly, liked the chanterelles. But they had to do it. For Prompto.

“Did you talk to her?”

“No, she was with Demetrius the entire time.” He sighed. “I think I can get her alone tomorrow morning. She was going to be up early to check on something in the river up the mountain.”

“What time?”

“I dunno. Before sunrise.”

“I guess you better be up there before then.”

He sighed, “Why did this happen to us. Who did we piss off?”

“I think Gentiana knows where we are and she’s messing with us.”

Knowing their luck she was completely right and they were just delaying the inevitable. He didn’t have high hopes that this would work out, so he tried to focus on dinner instead. Luna had clipped a few recipes so he leafed through them trying to find a recipe that didn’t have vegetables in it. Unfortunately the only recipes she got were for vegetables because they had pounds of bok choy that they needed to get around to eating. But he did have a few eggs from the hotsprings that he’d done a few days ago. And some corn from the harvest. He cooked the corn in butter and served it with the egg over rice which made a well balanced meal. Probably.

The next day he was up at four at night, he refused to call it four in the morning because that was not the morning, to head up the mountain towards Robin’s home. There he waited for a full hour just pacing while clutching the three beers in his hands until she finally wandered out of the house to head towards town. He gathered his things and intercepted her before she made it too close to town..

“Ah, you’ve come to help me with my experiments?” Sania asked. “You really are proactive, alright why don’t we-”

“Actually.” He said forcefully. He hated interrupting people but sacrifices had to be made, “I have a favor to ask. It’s kinda complicated, but I need you to promise that you’re not going to tell people that we’re here in Stardew Valley. Or that you saw us at all. And we’re hoping that these,” he held out the bottles, “Are enough to guarantee that.”

Sania smiled and shook her head, looking very amused at his offer.

“Oh honey, I was never going to tell,” She said, “I figured you three were hiding and I had no plans on telling anyone anything. I’ve been there before.”

“Really?”

“Yes, when I was young my mother expected me to go into tailoring. Like she did and my grandmother did. But I never wanted to, so when I was eighteen I ran away and lived at the university. I scraped by for years until I graduated and in all that time she didn’t know where I was until I sent her an invitation to my graduation. I understand where you’re coming from. You don’t have to worry about me.”

She spoke very casually about her surprisingly difficult confession. He didn’t expect her, of all people, to have a sad backstory, but he supposed that the happiest people could only be so happy after some run in with adversity.

“You have my word that this will remain a secret,” She said as she gingerly took the bottles from his hand. “And I will take these.”

With an emptied bag Noctis headed back to the farm to regroup with Luna. They both were nervous, but there wasn’t much else to do besides deal with the chores and try to work on the other small projects they were given. Prompto would be back in a few days, and the silo was finished. Luna managed to scrape up the money to start on the mill after running a few errands for Gus so they had Robin start on that in the meantime.

“I’ll build this, but then I’ll have to take a little break.“ She said. “The festival’s in two weeks and I’ll have to start setting things up soon.”

“We understand.” Luna said diplomatically. “Thank you for your hard work, we appreciate it.”

That went up and they had an entire day to let their anxiety simmer before Prompto returned home. Noctis checked the bus schedule and decided to meet Prompto when he arrived, figuring it would soften the blow if he were somehow able to talk to Prompto before they dumped the bad news. There were only four times that the bus arrived so he went to check on them each time. The first time he saw Sania get on one to leave, looking very happy with her suitcase almost bulging from the bottles of beer. He checked the second time only to watch the bus pass on by.

When he went up the third time the bus stopped right in front of the sign. He looked in to see Prompto, who’d sat near the back, get up from his seat and get off. Prompto looked both happy and surprised to see him waiting and they both quickly hugged before pulling out Prompto’s stuff for the walk back.

“How was your trip?” He asked.

“It was good. Two of the restaurants will order jam from us and one wants our beer. There was a lady there, Farroh Pen, and her husband. They were really nice. And then I visited my friend for the day and we went to the mall.”

“Which mall? The big one?”

“Oh yeah. Dude you shoulda seen it, it was ten stories tall. There was an entire story dedicated to the food court. It took us an hour before we could decide where to go cause there were so many different choices. Oh and I got Maru a hard drive that she wanted and you and Luna some coats.”

“Designer?”

“Kinda. My friend took me to a department store and said these were what the hell is that?”

Noctis’ stomach dropped. He wasn’t surprised to hear Prompto’s disappointment, but it was just as depressing. Across the way Robin noticed them both coming and waved, “Welcome back. You like the new additions?”

Luna hurriedly approached them both, “How was your trip?”

“It was fine why is there a silo here?”

“Well, uhm.” She glanced at him, but when Noctis didn’t say anything she continued, “We misread your instructions. I thought it would be good to purchase some animals, and had the silo installed before realizing my mistake. Sorry.”

He scratched his head, “I was saving this for later in the season…” He sighed, “It’s fine. But we can’t spend anymore money guys. We’re really close to the red now.”

Prompto pulled a slip from his pocket and handed it to Luna. “We have to fill these orders by the end of the month. Did all of this come with a barn?”

“No.”

“Okay.” He sighed again, “I guess we’ll look into it. Just let me look at the finances.”

“I’m so glad you’re night mad.” Luna sighed, releasing all the tension in her shoulders.

“I’m definitely annoyed.” Prompto corrected. “But I can’t change what’s done.”

Prompto spent his night back going over the calculations while he and Luna made sure everything else ran smoothly. They made dinner, cleaned up, and generally attempted to make up for their poor life choices. After a few days he and Prompto headed up to order a barn built. That went up without any problems and afterwards they all headed down to purchase a few cows from Marnie.

The only cows they could afford were a few older ones that hadn’t been sold in the past. She was very happy to give them a home for the last year of two of their lives and make space for some new additions so she included a milking pail and helped them walk the cattle to their new home.

While the cows took a few days to settle in Prompto instructed Luna to go down and purchase some grass starters so they could have a descent field going for the cows. Feeding the cows was a new chore that they took turns completing.

Noctis was very happy how everything turned out all things considered. He’d never had a pet before and, while cows weren’t exactly like a dog or cat, they got close enough. And he was excited when Prompto sat them down next to a happy looking cow one morning to teach them how to milk one.

“You basically are just grabbing, like, a handful of milk and squeezing it through a tube.” He said, as he demonstrated with a healthy squeeze that sent a few tablespoons of milk into the pale.

“Scoot over, let me try.” He said. Prompto got out of the way so Noctis could sit down and attempt. He followed Prompto’s instructions and quickly got the hang of it. Prompto got Luna set up with the other cow. It took longer than he expected, but after about half an hour they had two very heavy buckets of milk sitting in the fridge. They went about their chores for the rest of the morning then headed back inside for lunch.

“We should eat one of these with lunch.” Luna said. She pulled one of the cheeses from Prompto’s bag. “You got raclette!”

“Yeah they said it was popular at the shop.”

“This is perfect!” She hopped up and down then rushed to the fridge and pulled out some potatoes and corn they had. Prompto ended up next to her cutting them up while she got the cheese out of its plastic wrapper. Noctis sat back to watch another episode of livin’ off the land while they worked. He didn’t really pay much attention to them until he heard a sudden, sharp yelp from Prompto.

“Oh!” Prompto yelled. “Luna what?”

Noctis turned his head to see Prompto standing several steps away covering his nose with his shirt. Luna had gotten through about half of a wheel of cheese with a large butcher knife.

“This is what it smells like. Don’t worry about it, once it melts it’ll taste good.”

“Nothing that smells like that will ever taste good Lu!”

Noctis tried to ignore them, but got a good whiff of the cheese as the food was roasting. It was horrible, smelling slightly like the cage of Gladio’s hamster when Gladio forgot to change out the hay. But even that description was not enough to fully encompass just how horrible it smelled. Noctis slumped back into his seat and tried to breath as little as possible.

“Noctis come on!” Luna called. “Lunch!”

“Oh boy….” he reluctantly got up and headed to the kitchen. The smell had dissipated somewhat with the window open. On the table there was a plate of roasted potatoes and corn, then a plate stacked several strips of bacon, and some bread. Noctis sat down at one next to Prompto as Luna came out with half of the cheese. She held it in a gloved hand and the exposed end was bubbling and brown.

“This is what they do when it’s really cold in Tenebrae.” Luna said. She grabbed a spatula and held the cheese above the pile of corn and potato and scraped along the melted end, dumping a blanket of warm, melted cheese onto the plate of starch. Luna set the cheese down as Noctis reached for the pile and grabbed a generous spoonful of the stuff.

“This looks way better than it smelled.” Prompto said while Noctis just focused on eating it. The taste, thankfully, wasn’t like the smell. Rich and creamy, a little bit of salt. Noctis didn’t pay too much attention to either his boyfriend and girlfriend as he thoroughly enjoyed way more cheese then a person of his size should consume.

“Do you think we can make something like this?” Luna asked Prompto. “We have milk.”

Prompto shrugged, “Yeah sure. We just gotta get some stuff from Pierre’s.”

After lunch Prompto went and purchased a few little things from Pierre’s. One was a small bottle of liquid rennet and then he got a few cultures. They came home and Prompto started instructing Luna on how to make cheese. It was an interesting process, Noctis had never really wondered how it was made before that day.

Prompto first began heating up some of the milk in a large pot on the stove. Noctis was instructed to keep an eye on it while Prompto and Luna mixed some of the rennet with water.

“Ok that’s hot enough.” Prompto said. He pulled the pot from the stove and sprinkled a packet of cultures over the top. They waited a few minutes before Luna had to mix it all together. They then added the rennet and put the lid on the top. That was then left to sit overnight. When they woke up at six am Prompto walked over and showed them how it separated into a yogurt looking mass and some milky white liquid had pooled around it. Luna helped Prompto gather it into a cheesecloth and then hang the mass off the cabinet door for the whole day until, after dinner was had, they could unwrap it and reveal the cheese.

“You can eat it?” Luna asked

“Yeah. It’s cream cheese.”

“Oh, we should’ve made some bagels too.” Luna happily took some and mixed it with some sugar and berries for dessert.

Noctis kept his eye on the pile, not taking any that night. The next morning Luna and Prompto took some for breakfast before heading out to work then went off to forage. Noctis stayed behind and rifled through the pile of clipped recipes before he found what he was looking for. A simple recipe for cheesecake.

It had been a while since Noctis had indulged in one, but cheesecake had to be one of his favorite desserts to eat. And he didn’t feel bad about taking all of the cream cheese, Luna and Prompto had brought in gallons and gallons of milk from their two cows in the past two days. He suspected some of it might go to waste. So he happily headed out to Pierre’s for some graham crackers and eggs. He made the butter by shaking a jar of milk for an hour until it looked as close to butter as he thought it would get. Then he followed the directions as closely as he could. The batter looked a little plain so he rooted around for an already opened jar of Luna’s blackberry preserves to mix in with it.

He kept a very attentive eye on the oven as it baked. He wasn’t entirely sure it wouldn’t blow up and the last thing he wanted to do was burn down the house while alone since then he wouldn’t be able to blame it on anyone else. The cheesecake came out just as Luna and Prompto came home for dinner. Luna had a bag of chanterelles to be paired with some diced pumpkin and rice, but the true prize was clearly his amazing, stupendous, scrumptious cheesecake.

“You made this all by yourself Noctis?”

“Yep.” He puffed his chest out just a tad. “I’ve gotten good at this whole cooking thing.”

“Yes you have.” She kissed his cheek. “A man after my heart.”

“WIll you soon love me more than Prom?”

“Mmmm, only on nights where you bake for me.”

“Oh boy cheesecake.” Prompto moaned when he came in and saw the thing cooling. “There goes my waistline.”

“We’re fattening you up so you stay.” Noctis said, “Because we love you.”

“Creepy.” Prompto toed off his shoes. “At least you put some fruit in it… kinda.”


	10. Open For Business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang devises a plan to make money over the winter that isn't completely illogical or stupid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I missed my last update because I ran out of backlogs on chapters. So I'm slowly trying to build that back up. Anyone hope ya'll enjoy this one.

“We need a way to make money.” Prompto announced one evening over breakfast. “We have the winter season coming up and we can’t grow anything for a few months.”

“Are we in trouble?” Was Luna’s first question.

“No, we can take a bit of a vacation, but we can’t really spend three months not doing anything. We have plenty of food, but what can’t be saved needs to be bought. I was also hoping to upgrade our supplies and buy some sprinklers before spring.”

“Hmmm.” Noctis slouched in his seat.

“I think we’ll have to think about it Prompto.” Luna said.

“Alright, but we need a solid plan. I didn’t think this far so I didn’t plan for this.” He only felt confident in admitting that now that they’d settled in.

“Same.” Noctis admitted, “Thank god tho, I wouldn’t want to go back after disappearing and trying to explain that I thought I could make it as a farmer.”

“I was shocked when you suggested it.”

“And yet we made it through. See, I have good ideas sometimes.”

“Sometimes.”

“Maybe we should be adventurers.” Noctis said. “Go down the mines and get supplies for people. I know Haley needs a cave carrot.”

“We could forage for people too.” Luna suggested.

“I could always fish. We can sell extras.”

Prompto listened to them bounce ideas off of one another through morning chores. He checked the gravity on his beer then milked the cows. They had too much milk to drink themselves, but Prompto had taken some initiative and gotten a small, trial contract with a co-op the next town over. They might not have had enough milk to really supply a town, but they had enough raw milk to fill up a small corner of the supermarket and keep enough to make cheese. Luna made a cheese press and they were beginning an attempt to make a harder cheeses from Tenebrae like tomme d'auvergne and a manchego, but they wouldn’t be able to try it until the end of winter.

He was pretty happy with how things were going, despite the spending Luna and Noctis did. They’d needed something to eat during the winter, Noctis’ diet may have gotten better but he wasn’t about to survive the winter on just vegetables, so adding some dairy would help bulk out their meals. If everything went as planned they could get a chicken coop and some chickens by the end of winter.

Prompto returned inside with several pails of milk only for Noctis to steal one. He took it and ran off, probably to make some sort of sweet. The cream cheeses Prompto had been making had mostly turned into cheesecakes and schmear for bagels, but Prompto had a feeling that this week would be something different. It wasn’t ideal having so many sweets around, he could already see the fat accumulating on his gut, but it kept Noctis out of trouble, and Prompto had slowly built up a resistance to the temptation.

“You know…” Luna said as she helped him put the other pail milk on the stove to make their third cheese experiment, a parmesan that she hoped to use for the entire time next year. “We could do a sort of family restaurant.”

“A restaurant? On top of this?” He snorted, “Plus we ship out most of our jams and stuff to those restaurants in the city.”

“Not a full time restaurant, but if we clear off the rest of the big logs and boulders than we can plant some flowers and let the people roam around and take pictures then we could serve to people a few times a month. This place is really nice and most people don’t get the chance to eat on an actual farm. We can make a lot of money if we do it right. Maybe serve some of that apple wine you haven’t sold.”

“Not the wine!” Noctis whined.

“Hush. It would be simple. We’d serve something like bread, vegetable cream soup, and ice cream or cake. Noctis’ cheesecakes have been very good. We’ll advertise it for a night or two, set up, serve, and then clean up.”

“Would people really spend money to have food on a farm next to some cows?”

“Yes.”

“You’d be surprised at how much people will spend on stuff like this.” Noctis said. “It’s, like, eclectic.”

“It’s not eclectic it’s just stupid. But whatever, if it can get us money we might be able to do it during the winter too.”

“I shall start planning then.” Luna said. She headed off and left him to watch the milk heat up before returning to help with the last few steps of parmesan making.

Luna’s idea came to fruition pretty quickly because of her ruthless project management skills. They all cleared out the logs and boulders then planted plenty of flowers around the corner area of the farm that wasn’t being used for anything. The apple and pomegranate trees could be used to entertain any children who might be brought along. They built a few tables and chairs from spare hardwood and set up several fire pits to guard against the cold. Prompto had to admit that it all looked very pretty and rustic.

To make sure they had it all down they had to practice making the dinner several times before they attempted to do it for a crowd. Their spread expanded a bit. Fresh mozzarella cheese with crackers and smoked fish, cream vegetable soup with fresh baked bread, then jam cheesecake with a choice of fruit wine. It felt like a good amount of food for people to enjoy, until Luna announced that they would charge two thousand gold per head.

“No one will pay that much for some cheese and soup Lu.” He said. He didn’t like being debbie the downer, but there were high end restaurants in the city that didn’t charge nearly so much.

“Yes they will.” She announced. “Especially after we show off our grange display at the fair.”

“What’s that going to prove?”

“Everything. We can display nine things. Noctis fished up a nice salmon, we’ll take a keg of your grape and orange wines, I will make soup, and two jams with a bread, and we’ll display our best pumpkins and chanterelles.”

“Wait, we’re going to have to work at this fair?” Noctis complained. “I thought it’d just be like the spring one and we’d just eat and pass out fliers.”

“Yes Noctis, we’re working. We need another source of income, and if we can pull it off we’ll do this a couple of times throughout the winter. .”

As naive as her plan seemed it was hard for Prompto to really protest it. Neither he nor Noctis had managed to come up with anything more substantial than working odd jobs around town, which would certainly pay the bills, but wasn’t nearly as fun or potentially lucrative as Luna’s ideas in the unlikely chance they panned out. But he was willing to give it a shot so he pulled out some of his best brews for the fair and began planning new beer and wine ideas. He’d found his grandfather’s old cookbook in the back of the closet in an old box and in it there were a handful of recipes such as a chocolate stout and several grape wine recipes.

Prompto had expected the fair to be a small, local event. They went out to set up and saw some of the town’s people setting up. Marnie showcased the animals and the animal products she’d made, WIllie his fishing and fish themed dishes, Robin’s crafts. But when the fair officially opened at nine there was already a crowd. Many people from the nearby towns came to play games or sample food. Several people from the city came to play and have picnics while restaurantours came to check the local product. Luna made fliers for their restaurant day that she handed out with the soup and bread.

Prompto watched as judges and attendees came around to sample or purchase products on display. The soup was sold for two gold a cup and it quickly began to go on the chilly day. Prompto was on his feet for hours at a time selling his beer in small cups to thirsty people well before five. The crowd only got thicker as the sun rose. All three of them were stuck manning down the fort during the peak hours passing out samples and selling their products, which eventually lead to an elderly couple signing it up.

Once the crowds began to clear they all took their chance to relax. Noctis grabbed food from Gus’ saloon and they all tried to sneak bites in when they could.

“Hey farmers.” Maru chirped when she stopped by in the afternoon with Sam on her heels. “Whoa, you guys got wiped out.”  
“We did.” Luna said a little smugly. “It’s been a busy day.”

“I saw your fliers you were passing out. A restaurant huh? Any chance we can get on the list?”

“Do you feel like throwing away two grand?” Prompto said sarcastically.

She shrugged, “Maybe. Will you serve chicken nuggets?”

“A restaurant is a really good idea.” Sam said. “Squeeze all the money from the rich people.”

“Why is everyone convinced this will be a good idea?”

“Because rich people spend their money on stuff like this. They like feeling cultured and down to earth.” Sam gave air quotes around cultured and earth.

“See Prompto. We’re just tapping into an underutilized market.”

“Yep.” Noctis agreed.

“Oh my god…” Prompto sighed. “Whatever I just hope it goes how everyone thinks it’ll go.”

The fair went until late a night and didn’t begin to clear out until after dinner time. By then Prompto was sore and tired and didn’t want to clean up their station so they all just loaded it on a trolley and took care of it in the morning. The display went back into town storage and they went back to work planning their restaurant and working on their farm.

Luna’s fliers required an rsvp by mail since they didn’t have a phone in the house. Prompto went to check the mail one day and received one letter to rsvp for a family of six. He handed it to Luna, completely amazed that a family would spent twelve thousand gold just to eat on a farm, and she set that aside with the rsvp from the older couple.

Two more groups reserved in the weeks leading up to the event. A young menage a’ trois going on a date night and another family, also with young children. Luna made small baskets for the kids to use while picking fruit to keep them entertained between courses. They set the dining area up near the blooming, autumn flowers between the farming space and the fruit trees. The other half of the farm had the cows who would happily roam free as long as no one bothered them. The tables were near the fence dividing them so Prompto wasn’t too worried about someone getting in and disturbing them.

The prep work took quite a long time. Noctis used to smoke fish with his dad so he fished like crazy in the week leading up to it while he and Luna managed to find a bit of land near the cave to use as a smoker. They spent a morning building a box and a few lines to string the fish up on. Some wood had been laying out for a while and was dry so it was good wood for smoking so they picked the best of the fish and left them inside until all of them were golden brown and smelled amazing. Prompto kept sneaking bites when Luna wasn’t looking.

“So we need bread still.” Luna said, “Then the stew, and then the cheesecakes will be done by Noctis. Prompto do you want to do the bread?”

“Sure.” He said. It was an easy enough task. He started the bread the night before by mixing the starter right before going to bed, then woke up early to begin the second half of the process before either of them woke up. It was the last moment he could gather his thoughts before things went into full swing. He got the bread in the oven just before they all had to head out and complete their chores. Fresh milk was quickly taken for the soup, vegetables were prepped, and the bread came out to make room for the cheesecakes.

They put the final touches on the eating area by draping simple table runners over the tops and setting out fruit and eating wear. Prompto retreated into the house once the first guests, the big family with four children, arrived. Luna passed out the baskets for the kids to go pick some apples and the parents took the time to sit back and relax. The crackers were cooling on a rack while he and Noctis kept an eye on the stew and indulged in glasses of his wheat beer.

“I hope those kids don’t jump the fence.”

“Luna’s got it handled.” Noctis leaned back in his chair until his back cracked, he then sighed as the tension released from his frame. “But I doubt she wanted to be a babysitter this evening.”

“She hasn’t been around a lot of parents with kids. Once parents can unload the responsibility on someone else they will.”

Outside Luna kept a close eye on the children as she spoke with while entertaining their first guests. Noctis carried out some of the crackers, cheese, and smoked fish for the parents to enjoy while the children darted around the trees.

The rest of their guests quickly trickled in. The other children all rushed out to play with each other and conversation amongst the adults was pleasant. Prompto brought out their bottles of wine that they’d requested on their rsvp and came upon and, in the process, overheard some interesting conversations.

“This is so pretty.” A young woman said. She pulled out a phone and began taking pictures of the farm. There were flowers surrounding the eating area and a few of the cows were still grazing on the other side of the fence. Various other people agreed and they all began praising the farm, which was nice to hear, but also hilarious as he knew that most of it was hot air. None of them were going to restart their garden or take more hikes, or whatever they promised. But it was good income for them and all they needed to do was not mess it up on their first night.

“They’re really enjoying it.” Luna said. She came in and had them hold off as people were still taking pictures set to be post up on social media, and none of them could afford to be caught like that.

“Who knew that people would enjoy eating next to a bunch of cows.” He said sarcastically.

“I did, and we’re lucky they do.” She peaked out through the window to see the kids running back. “Let’s go back out in five minutes, we can serve the soup and bread and talk a bit. If anyone asks for a picture say it’s against your religion.”

“What religion doesn’t allow pictures?”

“I don’t know they didn’t ask. And don’t you answer.”

“This is already off to a great start…” Noctis muttered.

They hauled off the soup and ladled it into empty bowls as the sun set and the chill set in. People leaned towards the fires and the children returned with tiny baskets full of apples. They left the pot over a fire and sat with the families as they ate. This was part of the “homey” atmosphere. If they were in a restaurant the waitress would leave them alone, on a farm they got the chance to chat with the farmers.

“How much space would chickens need?” One of the dad’s asked. “I heard you can keep them in an apartment.”

“Uhm…” Prompto didn’t know exactly how to break it to the man that that was not a smart idea, but thankfully his oldest son stepped in.

“Dad a corner in your office is definitely not enough space.”

“We could put it on the balcony.”

“We barely have a balcony!” the son moaned.

With that bullet dodged dinner continued on with minimal issues. Most of the young children made a mess of their tables and Prompto had to help a mom clean off the worst of it from the table then they brought out the cheesecake.

Noctis’ cheesecake was amazing even though Prompto had literally been eating them several nights a week for the past few weeks. He’d gone the extra mile and covered the top with a blueberry syrup that was very sweet and gave all the children a terrible sugar rush. The parents all took their time finishing off their alcohol and then the evening began winding down. The menage a trois went off first, they’d booked a hotel the town over and it was clear they wanted to get the rest of their evening started. The families and the elderly couple stayed until the children began slowing down. The larger family left with two children tucked under their arms and then the elderly couple headed off their their home in Seagull Town. The last family stayed until all of their children were asleep and then happily carted them off.

It was late, all the food was gone, and they were all tired. Prompto crashed into bed next to Luna and ended up sleeping in late. It turned out interact with people was draining, so the cleaning happened in the morning after a big breakfast.

Prompto crunched the numbers after their morning chores were done and found that they’d made quite a bit of money. While the children did eat for a discounted rate in the end they still charged a lot of money and had a lot of people over. So between that and the fact that they didn’t really purchase anything, almost everything they’d made was something they’d either made or found, they had enough to order a shed from Robin and then keep about ten grand away for a rainy day.

Needless to say Luna was visibly very pleased when she saw the numbers. She clearly rode that high for the entire day.

“I told you.” She said. “Rich people will pay anything to feel cultured.”

“We should celebrate.” Noctis said before Prompto could say something sarcastic. “Let’s go somewhere or something.”

“Shouldn’t we upgrade some or our stuff?” Luna suggested, “Get new farming tools and the like? That was the point of this.”

“How about...” Prompto said, “If we can successfully do this two more times with similar results then we can plan a short trip over winter since we won’t have much else to do. We’re definitely getting a shed and a coop. Alright?”

That gave them all a goal to work to and a positive outcome if they managed to complete it. Luna began marking off dates they could feasible hold future dinners while he and Noctis began planning the trip, which was likely getting ahead of things. But he definitely was interested in visiting the desert during the winter and the sooner he could convince Noctis that it was better than the city the better.

A week later they were down in town having a lazy day. Noctis was fishing in the lake while he and Luna picked berries from a nearby bush when Mayor Louis passed them by and took a break in his mayoral duties to talk with them.

“Ah, taking a break eh?” He chuckled, “You three certainly deserve it with how busy you’ve been.”

“Yes, just a small one.” Luna said, “Have to work now while there’s work to be had. Do you get time off as well Mayor?”

“Of course not, when you love your job you never work a day in your life.” He then laughed at his own joke for a solid five seconds. “But I heard your little restaurant was a success.”

“A lot more people came then what I expected.” Prompto said.

“That’s good news. You’ll probably get more after that glowing review. If you keep it up you’ll be a must see for Pelican Town.”

“Review?” Luna asked.

“You three didn’t see it?”

“No, what review.”

“Wait here I’ll show you.” Lewis said. He walked over to his house, which was nearby, and came back out with a rolled up paper. He unfolded it and pointed towards the review.

Luna’s face was focused as she read the review before slowly splitting into a grin as she got to the end.

“Looks like it went better than even I could expect.”

“Yeah, that paper is distributed all over the valley.” Lewis said. “You’re off to a great start with this. Best to keep it up yeah? Brings in good business for everyone.”

“Thank you Mayor.” Luna said as she returned the paper. “Of course we’ll continue. It benefits us all.”

A handful of pleasantries later Lewis left and Luna sat back down next to her mostly full blueberry basket.

“You can admit it Prompto.”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Admit it.”

“No!”

“Luna your ideas are amazing!” Noctis yelled from his fishing spot. “We both love you very much.”

“Thank you Noctis.” She then turned to Prompto. “I love you both as well. But this was my idea and I demand praise for at least three more days.”

“Alright fine, but not a second more.” Prompto said.

“You’re also beautiful!” Noctis yelled.

“Praise be to Luna.”

She sighed, “This. This is what made it worth it.”


	11. Look Who's Coming to Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some guests arrive, and Luna learns a few new things about her boys.

Stardew Valley was finally starting to feel like home as the weather quickly cooled and frost formed on the windowsills in the morning. Luna enjoyed waking up next to Prompto and Noctis and not feeling sweaty and gross first thing in the morning. She also enjoyed the rainy weather, when she woke up and heard the water falling on the roof of the house. It made their jobs easier and she got to sleep in later next to her boyfriends.

Breakfast on rainy days tended to be more involved. Since the restaurant she and Noctis had gotten more comfortable in the kitchen, but Prompto was still a simple farmer with simple tastes. The debate between easy eggs and potatoes or fluffy pancakes had become common, and it was incredibly tempting for Luna to jump in on Noctis’ behalf and outvote Prompto’s requests, but she rarely did. Watching them debate was pretty good morning entertainment.

“It’s cleaner Noct.”

“Says who? You still have to clean a bunch of knives and stuff.”

“It’s more filling then.”

“Pancakes are entirely carbs, carbs are filling. You just want to pretend they’re unhealthy.”

“Noctis please.”

“Your king has made his decision.”

“King of a fat ass is what you are.”

“It’s because when you fish you do a lot of squatting.”

“You got off topic so we’re doing eggs.”

“Noooooo!”

The debate went on for another minute or so until a knock on the door thankfully broke them up. They both glared at each other for a minute before Prompto relented and went to open the door while Noctis started gathering flour and other baking ingredients. Noctis had experimented with many different types of pancakes and mixes in the past few weeks. The pumpkins had recently been picked and a few had been baked and pureed for pie so she was willing to bet money that he’d get into the containers to experiment with some pumpkin pancakes, maybe also - 

“Hey mom, dad.” Prompto’s said from the door. Luna immediately began panicking, and she tugged Noctis until he was on the ground next to her, before the figures could come in far enough and see them.

“What the hell Lu?” Noctis demanded. She covered his mouth with her hand.

“Oh Ah lohve what you’ve done with the pleyce dear.” A woman said. She had an accent that sounded a bit strange, like people she occasionally met from Niflheim who lived far west. Most of her words short and round sounding rather than the tap tap of the natural Niflheim dialect at the capitol.

Luna held her breath and hoped that Prompto successfully deterred them outside or, at the very least, away from them both so they could find a place to hide. No one could know about them, and the fact that these people came so unexpectedly was something they’d have to investigate after they left.

“Why are they ohn the floah deahr?” The woman said, unexpectedly standing above both she and Noctis.

“Probably fighting.”

Noctis ripped himself from her arms and quickly scrambled to get up, “Oh yeah we fight all the time. Hi Mrs. Argentum how you doing?”

“I’m doin’ greaht deahr.” She cooed, pulling Noctis into a tight hug. “Look at yah, so groahn. How’z yah muthah?”

“She’s good. Working hard as usual. You two staying?”

“Oh we wouldn’t wanna impose deahr.”

“Oh no I insist. Right Prompto?”

Prompto shrugged, “Sure.”

“Oh how lovleh. Ah’ve always wanted to come back heahr.” Finally she zeroed in on Luna. “Do you need healp up deahr?”

“Oh, no, uh.” Luna began pushing herself up. “No I’m fine thank you.”

Luna was barely on her feet before the woman pulled her into a tight hug, “It’s good to finalley meet you sweetie! I’m Grizelda, and this is Rubio. Naow, Prompto told me you spoke Nparoam. Is that treue deahr?”

“Uh - yes, a little.” She stuttered.

“Oh how lovely, I was so happy to hear that. He needs a talking partner.”

“Oh, uh. T-thank very... much me.”

“Awww, yousabit ruhsty deahr. But it’s so good tou meet you.”

Prompto’s mother stood back and Luna finally got a good at her and her husband. They were both slightly plump around the middle with muscular arms and calves, presumably from their years of farming. Both about the same height. His mother had a head of long, brown hair that hung freely and his father had a bushy, white beard that covered the bottom half of his face and long, white hair that reached down his back.

“Noctis was going to make roasted potatoes and eggs for breakfast. Do you two want a tour until it’s done?” Prompto asked.

“Oh we’d luhve one deahr.” His mother said. The three of them went back out into the rain for Prompto’s tour. Leaving her with Noctis who quickly deflated once the door closed.

“Of course Prompto would do that. I can’t believe him.” He said as he reached over and grabbed the potatoes from the dish. “He’s making me pancakes tomorrow.”

“Why did Prompto’s mother ask you about your mother Noctis?” She asked.

The question was clearly an embarrassing one since Noctis quite pointedly did not look up to her as he answered, “Uhm… so when I first met her Prompto’s mom didn’t recognize me. She asked what my mom did and I told her that she was a waitress…”

“... Why?” She was completely unimpressed with this answer.

“Because she gave me free food since she felt sorry for me. Like, she thought I was poor or something because Ignis kept sending me to school with zoodles.”

“Wooooow Noctis. I cannot believe you’d lie to our boyfriend’s mother.”

Noctis began pulling out potatoes to chop, “Prompto knew about it too! He didn’t seem to be worried.”

“Still Noctis. You lied to an old woman for food. What would your mother actually say?”

“She’d be proud!” Noctis dumped the potatoes in the pan. “My dad has stories. She would lie to a senator for a plate of cookies”

“I’m beginning to understand how you became you. This is entirely nature rather than nurture.”

“Thank you.”

She grabbed some vegetables from the storage and together they began working on breakfast. Luna didn’t know exactly how much Prompto’s parents ate, but she knew they were farmers as well so she decided that whatever she ate needed to be doubled. Thus the pan was loaded with potatoes, onions, and garlic before it was pushed into the oven.

Luna glanced outside to see Prompto and his parents heading back so she put a kettle of water on the stove to boil for some tea.

“Whaht youse douin’ iz guhd. Youh’re ghrandpha woulda been prouhd.” Prompto’s mother said as they came in and shucked off their shoes.

“Except we didn’t keep the name Butts.”

“Mmmm, nohbuhdy’s poifect.”

“Yousa need suhm chickens.” His father said as they all sat down at the table.

“Yeah, it’s in the works.”

“Shouldah bin yer furst animuhl.”

“So, what brings you two here?” Luna quickly said. She had questions that she needed answers before she felt comfortable continue with the conversation.

“Oh wehll.” His mother began, “Wie goht a cwall fruhm Lewis. Saihd he luhved the liddle restauhrhant youse done, and Ah knew youse was here!”

“Of course it was Lewis…” Prompto sighed.

As annoying as it was it was also comforting to know that they weren’t tracked down. Luna was able to relax and get to know her semi-parents-in-law. She knew that they both worked on farms all their life and that they’d immigrated from a small town in The Empire years ago, but she didn’t know much else until that morning when they caught Prompto up on the ins and outs of what was happening in their neighborhood in the Crown City.

It gave her an interesting glimpse into Prompto’s life. She and Prompto had kept in touch just like she and Noctis, but there was only so much someone could put on the paper. Prompto’s parents told her about their small chicken coop at home and about the small family of chickens Prompto had been raising for the past ten years. She didn’t know there was so much involved in raising chickens, or that Prompto had won awards for the eggs his chickens laid.

“My greatest achievement.” Prompto said sarcastically. “They sent six of ‘em up to the palace.”

“I didn’t know eggs were so revered in Insomnia.”

“Dey eatta dem rhaw sumtimes.” Rubio said.

“We eat them over rice.” Noctis elaborated. “My dad had one or two. It’s, like, a tradition. The King eats the best ones to show how good they are or something.”

“Oh, Prompto I didn’t know you had such a way with animals.”

“I have a way with many things.”

“Especially with humility.”

Griselda burst out laughing and Rubio let out a chuckle-grunt. They finished off breakfast then broke off. Prompto took his mother in town to meet with Lewis and pick up some food while she and Noctis got a cooking lesson from Rubio.

“Dis issa Prompto’s fehvorite food.” He said as he collected ingredients. “Whoevah learnsa dis best will be his fehvorite.”

“Oh really?” Noctis said then flashed her a look as if this was the official beginning of a contest. She wanted to pretend that he was being immature and that she wouldn’t fall prey to useless competition. But she fell prey to useless competition.

“So why is this Prompto’s favorite dish?” Luna asked as a distraction to the growing rivalry.

“Issa what mi madter maihd fora him behfore sheh diead.” Rubio said as he began slicing lettuce for salad. “Issa fruhm our home.”

“Where’s that?”

“Santiago. We’sa left ahftah the nifs keim.” He said. Luna stepped in to help him wash the lettuce while Noctis began slicing other vegetables. “She ahlweys wahnted to tehk him bachk.”

“It sounds nice.”

“It wahs. Iffa dis war ehnds suhmtime den we guhnna take him dere.”

Rubio told stories about the food and culture of Santiago while they prepared the various other courses for the evening meal. The topic made her feel a bit depressed. She felt similar to him, though she didn’t feel that was an entirely fair comparison. He couldn’t do anything to stop Niflheim while she and Noctis could do something if they tried. If they followed through with the prophecy, then they might stand a chance of ridding the world of the darkness. But it didn’t feel attainable. It almost felt suspicious. Like they’d get there and be told there was more needed to be done. But it was best she didn’t think about it. Thinking about it would do nothing.

Prompto’s parents started dinner pretty early because custom stated that dinner be an all evening affair. Rubio left her and Noctis to make two of the pizzas that resulted in a perfectly conventional bacon and asparagus pizza from her and a bbq potato from Noctis. Rubio took one look at spuds on pizza and immediately shut his mouth, politely saying that it looked unique and then turned back to the vegetables for the salad. Griselda laid out pickled artichokes, cheese, and bread for a starter and broke out some homemade red wine she’d brought. Right before they sat down Prompto put some cooled cream and sugar into the freezer for homemade ice cream.

The first “course” was the salads and pizzas. Rubio made a creamy, artichoke pizza which was as popular as Luna’s pizza. Noctis’ potato pizza went mostly untouched, only eaten by Prompto to be polite. Luna felt a small surge of pride at that, primarily because of a deep seeded competitiveness. The first salad was just lettuce, croutons, with a vinaigrette.

Luna tried to slow down and enjoy her meal, but the people of the Tenebrae palace always ate their food fast so they could avoid talking to each other. Sitting down to talk to people felt strange when it was just Prompto and Noctis, now with Rubio and Griselda she felt a little awkward.

“Dihd youses plehnt them flohwers fuhr sohmthing?” Rubio asked as he gestured out the window to the rows, upon rows of flowers near their house.

“It was for the restaurant thing.” Prompto said. “We might sell them though.”

“We could use them in the food.” Noctis suggest.

“Yeah let’s cook threelip.”

“... You know what?”

“What’s threlip?” Griselda asked.

“Noctis’ favorite flower.” Prompto said.

“Aysza nehveh uhndastoohd flohwars in foohd. Youse sees it awll theh thime nowahdays. Itta dohn’t evehn lookalike foohd ehnymore.” Rubio said.

“Lest week Romilda toohk her dahtta to dis, dis restauhrant fohr hur birthaday daht sehrved foahm on da dish ehnd lehttle dots ovf sauhs. Tewh hundarehd justa fohr soh lehttle foohd.”

“Specking ovfa birthadays.” Rubio said suddenly. He got up and rifled through the relatively light bags they brought and pulled out a medium sized package. Prompto slumped in his seat, both amused and embarrassed at the gift.

“You guys didn't have to do that.” He said. They’d all agreed to not celebrate birthdays for the first year and spend their money on the farm, but Luna felt glad that someone was able to acknowledge Prompto’s. She and Noctis always had big affairs during their birthdays with dinners and public events so when their birthdays passed they weren’t at all concerned about celebrating them.

After some coaxing Prompto opened up the package to reveal a medium sized game station. The latest model, but with the smallest amount of storage. Despite that it was a welcome gift that would give them some much needed entertainment in the evenings.

“You guys shouldn’t’ve.”

“Nonsense, youses need to have alehttle fun out here. Cahn’t do ohnly wurk now can you?”

Dinner wrapped up a little after that and they spent the second night on the couch. In the morning they took Prompto’s parents and they both promised to send Prompto some baby chicks from his award winning chicken family. Once they were safely on the bus they all went down into town to see if there were cheap games they could buy for the system. Pierre typically had items of that nature and they luckily found a few party games to play. There were game magazines with order forms so Noctis signed up for one at the shop so they could look forward to purchasing more games.

“Just promise me that you two won’t waste away in front of that thing.” She said, having full intention of wasting away in front of that thing herself.

“I’ll think about it.” Noctis said proudly. “But I think we all deserve a nice binge considering the fact that we’ve only been working and watching TV.”

“And drinking.” Prompto said.


	12. Spirit's Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis' insecurities come to a head as a spirit haunts the hot springs.

Robin finished a chicken coop just four days before the Spirit’s Eve festival, which was right on time as the baby chicks from Prompto’s parents arrived just two days afterwards. They were a rush delivery, and came in a special container that kept them warm and safe on their overnight trip. It would be a few weeks before they were big enough to start laying eggs and Noctis was already planning on making baskets and baskets of hot springs eggs.

With winter approaching there was little to do besides plan. They weren’t going to plant anymore seeds and they’d just harvested all their bok choy. Prompto had taken some to make fermented bok choy and the rest would either be preserved or eaten. They’d have plenty of vegetables to eat. Enough to make Noctis sick, and make Ignis proud. He’d have to make sure to keep the balance in his stomach in check by baking sweets. Since they would have fewer chores he had to find something to do with his time.

Everyone in town was excited for the Spirit’s Eve festival. Every shop had decorations put up and when he went into town for lunch he saw the kids running around already dirtying up their costumes. Their second dinner had gone well, Prompto made some mac and cheese, Luna served a sauteed mushroom dish, and Noctis tried a shortbread cookie recipe for dessert. Since it was their second successful dinner Prompto had given them each a small allowance. Before, when they didn’t have money, their spluging was done together on simple meals and things of that ilk. Now Noctis had some money of his own in his pocket and he was going to see about purchasing a game from Sam.

Sam didn’t typically stray far from town. Noctis searched by the bridge and followed the river until he found his friend practicing his kickflips on his skateboard and being a general untamable youth. Sam paused once he saw Noctis approaching.

“You got the stuff?” Noctis asked.

“Yeah, you got the money?” Sam asked, breaking out into a small smile as he played along.

Noctis slyly took the cash out of his front pocket and the two commenced with the worst, fake drug purchase ever since the drugs was actually a copy of an old game Noctis played as a child. It was a platformer with a stupid animal mascot, but it was really fun as a kid and really cheap now.

“You getting ready for Spirit’s Day?” Sam asked.

“Sure am. I’m going to come, eat all the food, and then leave.”

“You’re not going to find the golden pumpkin?”

“I will if I feel like.”

“Oooo, tough guy things finding the pumpkin will be easy.” Sam did a successful kickflip, “Well I’m going to finally solve all the mysteries of Pelican Town.”

“All the mysteries? I didn’t even know there was one mystery.”

“Well there are!”

Noctis paused. “... You gonna tell me about ‘em?”

“Sure, since you asked nicely. Firstly, have you heard of Abigail?”

“.... Yes…?”

“Well, I overheard her yesterday. Penny gave her a piece of amethyst as a gift and Abigail said, and I quote, “Wow, thanks, how did you know I was hungry”, no one has seen the amethyst since.”

“So you think Abigail ate it?”

“I know Abigail ate it.”

“But…”

“Also! Last week I was up at the hot springs warming up after a long day in the cold and guess what I found in the water.”

“I don’t want to know!”

“Eggs! Four whole eggs! Just floating around in the water.”

“Oh… uh…” Noctis thought back to last week when he made more hot spring eggs. He always ended up losing a couple…

“And a boot. And a couple of scratch offs.”

Oh, those weren’t Noctis’.

“Anyway Maru, Sebastian, and I are going to go and investigate during the festival. If you or Prompto and Luna wanna come you can.”

“Hmmm.” Noctis wasn’t sure if he should go. He would eventually give away that he was behind the egg issue and he sort of enjoyed messing with Sam a bit. The conversation turned to Sam’s band and his new job at JojaMart before they split up so Noctis could go catch dinner. He headed into the woods and sat down at the lake near the house.

As he fished for a good lure Noctis felt his back tense up just a tad. He felt the pressure to get something substantial for that night’s dinner so they weren’t just eating a plate of vegetables again. He typically was lucky and caught something, but occasionally he struck out. The past few days had been rough and the night before they ate cream vegetable soup with bread. Vegetables still weren’t his favorite, and they weren’t very filling all things considered. They still couldn’t afford any meat just yet so every day he failed to fish up food was a day they subsisted off of bread, vegetables, and milk. Despite Prompto complaining that the cheesecakes were unhealthy they all had lost some weight due to the days Noctis failed to provide and he didn’t like the sight of it.

He cast his line to try and focus on the here and now, but that hope slowly dwindled. It quickly became clear that this would be another night of no bites and he’d have to go home and eat vegetable stew. A depressing thought that shot Noctis’ enthusiasm and made the entire process feel like a giant chore. He tried to shake the feeling as the lure went untouched.

Noctis eventually got to frustrated and abandoned his plan for a salmon to go home. There was stuff he could do at home, like build something. Prompto had found a few schematics for some items both at the library and online. Noctis could make a mayonnaise machine since they would soon have chickens, but it was too early for that. There was no need for fertilizers. They didn’t have animals that made wool so no need for a loom.

But he could make a crab pot. Which would relieve him of his duty somewhat. He’d have to make sure to replace the bait every day, but it meant that he wasn’t fishing all the time. Noctis sat down and made two crab pots, working until the sun began to set, and then set them down near the lake to see how they held up during the night. When he returned home Luna was already preparing a pumpkin and herring pie which sounded good and like a welcome change from all the vegetables. But their fish was running low, and if Noctis didn’t hurry up and catch something they’d soon be back to vegetables until further notice. Hopefully the crab pots would give them a more reliable source in less time.

“How was your day Noctis? Catch anything fun?”

“It was fine.” He lied. “Nothing tonight, but I made crab pots. I’m testing them tonight.”

“That’s good.” She shoved the pie in the oven. “Prompto’s seems to be late from the mines so I started on this late.”

“How late should he be?”

“Oh you know him. He does this stuff at his own pace.” She said.

The pie came out about thirty minutes later, but there was no sign of Prompto so they kept the leftovers in the warm oven for when he came home. They both then sat in front of the TV to watch a game show for an hour until they realized just how late it was and that Prompto was not home.

“Do you think he’s hurt?” Luna asked. Noctis tried to not look worried, but he was wondering the same thing. Prompto was smart so he wouldn’t get caught up in anything he couldn’t handle. Still Noctis wished he had gone with Prompto rather than go and hunt for some stupid video game.

He and Luna eventually tried to go to bed, but they tossed and turned in the dark worried about Prompto until, finally, sleep was the only option. It wasn’t the most fitful of rests, Noctis knew that he woke up several times during the night even if he didn’t necessarily remember what woke him.

In the morning he woke up to Luna bustling and murmuring to herself in the living room. Noctis got up and walked out to see that Luna had been bustling and murmuring over Prompto, who was sat on the couch with a bucket of bloody water nearby and a pile of bloody bandages on the ground.

Prompto definitely ran into something down in the mines. His left arm was bandaged and Luna was unwrapping it to change the bloody parts. Otherwise he was deep asleep with his head on the headrest and a pile of blankets warming him. Noctis’ stomach dropped and he felt the depression he’d felt the day before mingle with the anxiety the sight of Prompto’s injured body caused.

“Don’t wake him.” Luna whispered. “I’ll help you outside.”

He silently went outside and waited until Luna finished up and came out. “When did he get back?”

“About an hour ago. I guess he got in over his head down in the mines. The doctor took care of him so we just need to make sure his bandages stay clean.”

“Oh.” Noctis tried to think positively about this. Prompto was fine, the worst of what had happened was already behind them and Noctis should just focus on making sure Prompto was feeling comfortable as he recovered. But it was hard. Prompto was the reason they’d survived and Noctis didn’t know if he could handle the farm for any amount of time without him around to make sure they did everything correctly.

“Noctis. You have your worried face on. Stop.”

“I’m fine.”

“No you’re stressed. He’s just a little beaten up, but I talked to him when he came back and he was fine. All things considered. He just needs a few days off to recover. Let’s just make sure the work gets done and that he’s taken care of.”

Yes, that was smart. Focus. The worst had already passed with Noctis blissfully unaware of it occurring, so all he should just focus on helping Luna harvest the corn, the only thing they really had left besides a few almost ripe pumpkins. They would freeze that crop of corn for the winter and pickle the rest for selling. Noctis brought the crop in and Luna cut the kernel from the crop for freezing. Three were left over for dinner with the hope that Prompto would be well enough to eat.

Afterwards Noctis left to go check on his crab pots which were still in the spot where he left them, completely intact. He turned one over hoping for something good and felt his heart drop to see a wet newspaper drop onto the ground. He frantically pulled the second one out and turned it over, only to feel sick when he saw a pair of broken glasses inside.

The sight shouldn’t have depressed him so much, he knew that crab pots aren't always successful, but the sight was still depressing regardless. They all needed to contribute and this was all he could do, capture old newspaper or spend an hour just to get a single carp. He tried to remind himself that this was just the first day of his trial, nothing is perfect. If he had more pots then he’d have more luck in catching something. But the stress had been piling on him for quite a long time and it hit him in that moment, with an injured Prompto and unsuccessful crab pots, that maybe he’d let it go too far. He sullenly deposited more bait into the center of the traps and tried to fight back the tears.

He should’ve stayed and fished up something for dinner, but just thinking about it made him depressed. So he headed back home and searched for something to do inside. Luna was off with Emily and Leah and Prompto was awake watching TV. Prompto looked well, but he still seemed tired as he only gave a small wave when Noctis entered. Since Prompto’s cast was still white Noctis figured he’d let him be so Prompto could catch up on some hard earned rest.

Everything had been properly taken care of, both inside and out. They didn’t need to pick anything or pickle anything. The cows were happy and none of the fences needed to be repaired. Noctis felt just a bit lost for a moment until he remembered that they’d ran out of cookies two nights ago. Prompto had been trying to stay away from treats, but he did have a soft spot for vanilla cake with fruit. It was easy enough to make and they had everything they needed for it.

So he got to work. He’d have to buy more eggs after this but he wasn’t completely worried about that. Instead he focused on making the batter. Since this was a nice cake he made sure he used a recipe with whipped egg whites to make it extra fluffy and poured the batter into three different pans. Fancy cakes were made with several layers and even if that didn’t make anything taste better it’d make Prompto, and probably Luna, a bit happier to have that bit more frosting and fruit. The batter went into the oven and then he waited.

“Whatcha makin’ Noct?” Prompto asked from the living room. His voice was a little groggy from just waking up.

“It’s a surprise.”

“Hmm. Yay.” Prompto sat up on the couch, “Can I make lunch while you’re doing it?”

“What do you want I’ll make it?”

“Just a grilled cheese or something.” Prompto laid back down. “You sick of fishing?”

Noctis sliced into some simple cheddar cheese that had recently finished its short aging, “A bit. You know how it is.”

“Yeah. Well I guess you need a new hobby now. Have you tried basket weaving?” Prompto said, obviously joking but hitting the nail of Noctis’ insecurities directly on the head.

“Maybe, we do need more baskets around.”

He made Prompto his grilled cheese and got the cake out to cool. At just after noon it was also time to think about dinner. A food item he’d missed for a long time was Ignis’ canned ham sandwiches. Pierre’s had the meat, but not the sweet, honey flavored bread. But the bread wasn’t too difficult to make he found the recipe online and got to work on it while Prompto dipped back into sleep. He mixed the ingredients up and let that rise while he ran to the store to grab some canned meat.

Once the meat was obtained he came back, shoved the bread in the oven, then worked on the cooled cake. Prompto liked fruit so he made a vanilla buttercream frosting and grabbed some fresh berries and began layering the cake with fruit and frosting between each layer. The fruit then made a simple decoration on the outside, making a very pleasing, but simple, white and purple cake.

“Wow, what’s the occasion?” Luna asked when she came back with a full bag of foraged goods.

“I just didn’t have much to do today.”

“Oh you could’ve come with me.” She said as she unloaded her haul. “There was a lot to forage today.”

He tried not to let that hurt. He probably should’ve done something more productive then make a fancy cake and some bread, but they had dinner and dessert so he was going to try and count that as a complete contribution. He fried up the ham and made some artichokes since Prompto and Luna would want a vegetable, and dinner was done.

Prompto seemed to be feeling better after resting the whole day, but he didn’t seem to have much of an appetite. At least not for dinner. He happily ate a big slice of cake even though he said he was full then managed to make it to the bedroom to sleep some more.

“There’s so much cake here.” Luna said as she took a second piece. “We’re going to have to go on a diet this winter.”

“Winter is no time to diet. Let’s do the new year.”

“Hm, I suppose.” Luna leaned over and kissed his cheek. “If you go fishing tomorrow try and catch a big one. I want to try frying fish.”

Noctis’ stomach dropped at the comment and he felt sick even as he crawled into bed later that night. It sat in his stomach well into the morning when he headed out first thing in hopes that he could get as many fish as possible and and lift them back out of this case of food insecurity. He cast his line out at the pier on the beach. He could see an albacore swimming under the water so he held his breath and sat stressfully until it bit on the line, which he immediately reeled in the second he saw it’s tiny mouth close around the hook. The albacore wasn’t the biggest he’d ever caught, but it calmed him somewhat to know that they had dinner for another night or two. He cast his line in and hoped for another catch.

Willy sometimes came out fishing in the mornings before he went back in to work the shop. On that morning, like many others, he came out with his tackle box and cast a line into the sea to catch his lunch.

“You look a little depressed ‘dere.” He said as he sat down. “Somethin’ happen at home?”

Noctis sigh, “Nah. Just we’re running out of fish soon. So I have to make sure to stock up or we’ll be eating a bunch of vegetables.”

“That not ideal? I hear dey’re good for ye.”

“I mean, I guess they are. But we’ve been eating them a lot and since it’s my job to fish I should catch a lot of fish.”

“Hmm, I see. Well, if you’re lookin’ to stock up, then you could always come fishin’ with me this winter.”

“Come with you where?”

“Sea o’ course.” Willy cast the line into the water. “I go a couple o’ times every winter and it’s always real profitable. I’m going to be going the first week o’ winter.”

“It’s not going to cut into your profits?”

“No, I never catch enough to fill my storage. You come help and I give ya twenty percent o’ what I get.” Willy held his hand out. “Deal?”

Noctis mulled it over for a minute. Spending a week away from Prompto and Luna, especially after what happened to Prompto, made him feel anxious. But if he caught enough fish then they would have a fair amount in reserve and it would set Noctis’ mind at ease. Even if Luna and Prompto told him not to do it, if they told him everything was fine, he still felt like he needed to do something. Make some contribution equal to Prompto’s knowledge or Luna’s ambitious ideas.

“Sure.” He reached out and shook Willy’s hand. “I can’t wait.”

Willy gave him a hearty pat on the back, “That’s good ta hear.”

Noctis fished for more albacore then switched to fishing up salmon from the river later that day. He felt a bit better heading home since he’d finally broken his unlucky streak and caught four big ones to bring home. Despite the success he didn’t feel like he should reconsider the trip he’d just agreed to. He wanted them all to survive the winter comfortably, and that meant he had to do his part. Prompto’s beer brewing and Luna’s restaurant were both very successful and raking in good cash so he couldn’t slack off and rely on them like he felt he’d been doing since arriving.

His spirits were lifted just enough that when the Spirit’s Eve festival rolled around the next day and he happily followed Sam up the mountain towards the hot springs. Prompto had come to the festival, but he’d opted to stay in town with Penny to watch people go through the maze. Luna trailed close behind with Abigail and Sebastian in tow.

“If we don’t see anything I’m going to be ticked.” Sam announced as they approached the hot springs.

“If we see nothing then it’ll mean the town isn’t haunted.” Abigail replied.

“No it doesn’t. It just means that whatever’s haunting us is smart.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense.”

“You cannot prove that ghosts don’t exist therefore you cannot prove that we are not haunted by a ghost.”

“Oh my god…”

They approached the completely normal looking hot springs at almost midnight. It hadn’t been decorated by the town, but the lights were on and it failed to look any more haunted than any other building in town.

“Let’s go inside.” Abigail said, taking the lead when Sam froze. Luna and Maru eagerly followed and Noctis mad sure to go in ahead of Sam to prove, if only to himself, that he wasn’t the most scared out of this group.

“Everything looks normal.” Maru said when she poked her head into the female side of the spa.

“Maybe something sunk?” Sebastian suggested.

Noctis heard a small splash as one of the girls ducked under the water on the woman’s side of the spring. On the men’s side it was a different story. They didn’t need to duck under the water to see if things had been left in the pool because two eggs were floating in the water. Noctis knew that they were eggs he’d forgotten to grab two nights ago when he came up to boil some for lunch so he tried to pretend that he was surprised to see it.

“See? See I told you!” Sam yelled. The girls filed into the men’s side of the pool to see the eggs still floating in the water.

“...That’s it?” Sebastian said.

“This bath house is being haunted by a chicken.” Luna said

“You guys don’t think it’s weird that there’s two obviously fresh eggs just floating in a hot spring?”

“Maybe someone’s cooking them?” Maru said. The comment caused Luna’s eyes to swivel towards Noctis.

“There were other things in there I swear!” Sam said. He waded out to the pool and dived under the water. He was under for longer then expected, long enough that Noctis could tell the girls wanted to leave, before surfacing up above the water thrusting a big knife up in the air.

“Was that just under the water!” Abigail yelled, shocked.

“Yes! Do you think I just keep a giant ass knife in my pocket?” Sam slowly began to wade back towards dry land. “There’s a bunch of other stuff down there. I saw a pair of purple swim trunks and a shoe!”

Abigail grabbed the knife from his hands before he could hurt someone. “So, what, someone’s just littering in the springs?”

“No, clearly someone is hiding evidence! By leaving the knife in hot water it destroys fingerprints and they’re trying to separate evidence by leaving it in random spots!”

“... I have heard of people burying incriminating evidence in random spots to confuse investigators.” Sebastian said. “But maybe someone just was trying to wash them and left them there?”

“Right, we can’t assume it’s any sort of spirit or murderer. Even if we did how would that explain the eggs?” Abigail said.

“I don’t think we need to worry about the eggs, someone just got careless.” Luna said.

“We need to tell someone at least.” Maru said. “Maybe the mayor can look into it. Clear this up.”

Noctis was about to agree with Maru since her plan was clearly the most practical, but before he could say anything a dog trotted into the bath house from the showering area. It was a small lab with a children’s candy bag clutched in its mouth. The dog breezed past them all, stopped at the edge of the pool, then gently dumped the bag into the water. They all silently watched as the dog turned around and happily trotted off.

“Well then…” Sebastian said. “I guess this mystery is solved.”

Sam physically deflated, and he let out a deep sigh. “Yeah I guess so. Should I put this back?”

“What, no?”

“Throw it away in town!”

“No, find out who owns it and give it back!”

“Who’s dog was that anyway?”

“Probably Marnie’s…”

“I can’t believe we missed the maze for this.”

They all gave Sam a hard time on the way down, which quickly changed into some light teasing as the tension lifted. He and Luna met up with Prompto who was holding up pretty well even after being dragged through the maze several times by the kids. While Noctis and Luna had been up solving the mystery Prompto had also been shopping, and he’d purchased a new scarecrow that Noctis lugged back. It would soon be useless, but Noctis liked the look of it’s pumpkin head so he put it near the farm before heading to bed as the freezing hand of winter gripped the town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be done last Saturday but I just didn't get around to it. We've been indirectly affected by the fires and while I'm fine the smoke has made everything really depressing and I've been stuck inside. Hopefully it'll clear up and I'll get the next chapter out on schedule.


	13. The Second Bundle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis leaves to fish, the farm gets a few friends, and the junimos get to work.

“What possessed you to agree to this?” Luna demanded just like she demanded every day since Noctis told them that he was going on this fishing trip. Prompto initially had been too tired to really fight Noctis on this so he’d chosen to remain silent. Noctis was going to do what he needed to do, and it wasn’t like Prompto wasn’t going to appreciate having a good stock of food since winter had set in.

“Because it’s a good opportunity to stock up. I’ll only be gone for a week, do you guys really need me around?” Noctis replied.

The crops were now officially dead, and Prompto was feeling a bit better. His arm had been sliced in two places and the initial pain had been distracting, but now it was a dull ache that he he was managing to deal with. With all that Prompto didn’t feel it necessary to protest Noctis going. There wasn’t a lot of work to do so if Noctis wanted to do something productive then now was the time.

The debate between Luna and Noctis raged on throughout the day and was only made worse by the fact that they didn’t have much to do so they didn’t take a break to think it over. By lunch Prompto was tired of hearing it so he retreated to the shed with his beer and crunched numbers. There was enough to survive the winter, most of their food was either preserved or frozen so he could budget in some construction work and maybe a few activities. With another dinner in a few days, and another two during the winter, they would likely be very comfortable.

Unfortunately with Noctis gone that meant he and Luna would have to handle the dinner on their own. He was not looking forward to that.

He understood Luna’s frustration. They all went from having so much work to do in the past nine months to very little work, so it gave her time to worry about him and this honestly fairly rash decision. Prompto had picked up his camera a few times during their break, but otherwise the only work they had to entertain themselves with were the cows and the now adult chickens, both of which he went out to feed and check on.

The chickens were already showing the very good traits that Prompto had bread into the line almost five years ago. He was careful with the feed so the yolks were a deep orange and custard-like. In Insomnia eggs were a popular food all the way from poor people to King Regis himself so finally getting the award-winning breed he’d worked hard on did make him happy. Prompto collected the twelve eggs, thus far each chicken only really laid one or two a day, and selected the better looking ones to be sold. He brought in the six others to find that Luna and Noctis had managed to simmer down.

“Should I take those to the hot springs?” Noctis asked.

“No, I don’t want to lose them.” He said, holding the basket out of reach.

“...Who told you?”

“Luna did.” Prompto set the eggs down on the counter. “Let’s try a new egg recipe.”

“Nothing beats hot springs eggs though. It’s low maintenance. Delicious. Hot spring eggs can go with everything.”

“Let’s do TKG.”

“... Oh yeah!’ Noctis explained. “I forgot about that. Oh man, I used to love TKG.”

“Right. Since we have good eggs we should eat it. Saves you the trip.”

“What TKG?” Luna asked.

Noctis let out an over excited gasp. “You’ve never had TKG? How have you never had TKG?”

“Noctis just tell me what it is.”

“Here we’ll show you.”

Prompto had Noctis steam some rice. Once that was done the pot was brought to the table.

“So you take some rice and mix it with the egg.” Noctis said as he scooped some into his bowl then in Prompto’s and Luna’s. Luna took hers back and watched as Noctis cracked an egg into the rice and mixed it around.

“...That’s it? Looks bland.”

“Well you add seasoning.” Noctis added some soy sauce and scallions to his bowl. When Prompto’s parents made this dish at home they typically added sweet chili peppers and cooked bacon, but here he followed Noctis’ lead and added soy sauce and scallions which Luna also copied.

“...” Luna looked took a big bite of the rice. “Hmmmm. It’s alright. You definitely overhyped this Noctis.”

“Rude.”

“What is it with Luciens and raw things?”

“It’s good! You can taste the actual flavor of the food.”

“It tastes bland.”

“She’s right Noct.” Prompto said. “It is a bit weird.”

“You two just don’t understand.” Noctis said. “Good food needs only salt.”

“You’re right, we don’t understand.” Prompto said, but he focused back on his food as the debate between Luna and Noctis finally turned playful.

That afternoon Noctis went out to help Maru with her research while Prompto stayed behind with Luna. He would’ve gone to spend the last night with Noctis on his trip but it sounded like going meant that he would have to help finding frogs and there was many things he was willing to do to show his love for Noctis, but touching frogs wasn’t at the top of his list. He began going through his photos, uploading them onto the tablet to go through some minor edits while Luna sat down in front of the TV to watch the fortune teller.

“Hey Lu?” Prompto said during a commercial.

“Hmmm?”

“Do you think we should do something for Noct? For his trip?”

“Like what?”

“I dunno…. He likes food. We can make him food.”

“You don’t think WIlly will feed him? He probably knows better than us of what to bring.”

“Well it’s like camping right? Noct and I have experience camping.”

“Hmmm.” Luna got up and opened the fridge. “What does one normally bring camping? Fresh things would go bad right?”

“Well it’ll be cold out at sea. And when we used to camp in Insomnia we’d bring stuff to eat and then a pot of rice.”

“What is it with Noctis and rice? It’s not that great.”

“I think it’s a cultural thing. But Ignis and I would sometimes prepare things to go with it. LIke we’d make rice balls since they can keep forever, normally with luncheon meat and eggs. Canned fish with egg over rice. Chicken and egg over rice. Uhm, fried chicken over rice…”

“How is he not always constipated? He barely even eats apples.”

“The royal bowels are impenetrable.”

“Lovely. Well at least it’s easy to make. But if we want it to be a surprise then we’ll have to make it early. He leaves tomorrow at seven…”

“Four A.M it is.”

They both managed to keep their little secret through dinner where Luna made tortillas out of the corn and then filled it with roasted peppers and cheese. Prompto tried to get a decent amount of sleep but it felt like the second his head hit the pillow the alarm he and Luna had set was going off. He turned over in bed and barely managed to see her displeased face in the mostly dark room.

“He’d better appreciate this.” She mumbled as she got up out of bed.

The first thing they started was the rice which went into a pot on the stove and was watched closely by Prompto so that it didn’t get mushy or overflow. Next Luna started on frying chicken cutlets and simmering sauce. Prompto cooked egg with chicken to make a mother and child topping for rice. Once the rice was done Luna made six, thin egg omelettes to wrap over the luncheon meat and rice to make a very hearty ball. The dishes were simple and filling so hopefully they filled Noctis’ bottomless pit up enough that he could catch a season’s worth of fish. At six they were done so they turned focus onto making pancakes as a special breakfast before Noctis left.

“Whoa you two are up early.” Noctis said, he came out of the bedroom fully dressed with a weeks worth of clothes in a bag.

“Just early for you.” Luna said, “Since you’re going we thought you should have a proper send off.”

“Aww, you guys didn’t have to do that.” Noctis said, but his humility was mostly for show. He grabbed a big stack of pancakes and doused them in maple syrup before quickly diving in.

“Promise you’ll be safe for me okay?”

Noctis leaned over and kissed her cheek, “I promise. Also while I’m gone can you guys plant spring fruit trees? Also love you both, bye!”

Noctis then leaned over and kissed Prompto’s cheek then headed off to meet Willy at the pier. Prompto didn’t feel as depressed at the sight as he thought he might be. Willy was a nice guy and he was perfectly capable of making sure Noctis returned alive and well so he tried to focus on the work, what little of it there was, that needed to be done in the here and now.

Spring fruit trees. As expensive as it was Noctis’ idea of fruit trees was smart and they needed to get plenty in the ground so they had fresh apricot and cherries to make wine and preserves out of. He and Luna headed to to Pierre’s when they opened and purchased enough saplings to double the size of their small grove grove. It was work that took all day and left Prompto bone tired. His arm was on the mend, and he was able to move it almost like he used to, but it still shot little lines of pain up and down by the end of the day.

He rested that night, but the next day was more work. WIthout Noctis Prompto had to step up to make a simple shortbread cookie for the fifteen people they were to serve that day. It was a lot, and they weren’t expecting to be a man down, so whatever they could get done beforehand they did. Fried mushroom tacos with pickled vegetables and chips. Luna patiently pressed out tortilla dough while Prompto cooked them and set some aside for chips.

“You know, this was Ravus’ favorite recipe.” Luna said in passing as they worked. Luna typically didn’t give away too much, but it was clear she was missing Ravus. Prompto slung an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a quick hug, but they both quickly turned back to work. Luna wasn’t the type to lament while there was work to do.

Their meal goes off well even if it was a little more stressful than usual. The hours of chopping made his arm even more sore and caused a stitch to start bleeding again. Prompto stuck a bandaid on it to mop the worst of it up and then worked with Luna to get everything done and out at a decent time. Since there were more people Luna didn’t have to go out and entertain as much as she needed to before, but she did spend the rest of the evening with them while Prompto tried to clean up what he could before collapsing into bed. He’d clean up the rest before breakfast in the morning.

He woke up early in the morning to the doorbell ringing. He rolled over to see that Luna was well and truly dead to the world so get got up out of bed and went to answer it, opening up the door to see Marnie standing outside with a small kitten in her hands and a dog behind her knee.

“Prompto! I see the cows are working out nicely.” She said. “I knew you three were reliable.”

“Oh yeah, they’re really healthy. Thank you for giving them to us for so little.” He said, eyeing the adorable little kitten in Marnie’s hands.

“Well, they deserved a happy home. Speaking of happy homes, I have two pets here that need one. Would you like one? I simply don’t have room anymore to take care of them anymore. My daughter is allergic to cats and the dog needs a bit more space.”

The small kitten looked relatively young. It had orange fur growing in and a little collar around its neck. It sat quietly, resting in Marnie’s arms. The dog was still young, but already big. It would end up as big, black mastiff in no time.

“Just one? What’s going to happen to the other one?”

“I’ll ask around the village, but I cannot imagine anyone else taking a pet. The most likely is Clint because he lives alone, but I might not visit him. His home has a large work area and a pet would just get in the way and get hurt. If I can’t find homes for them I’ll likely for a home online for them.”

Oh no. Prompto was a rational man, for the most part at least, but damn him if he didn’t love animals. He couldn’t bare to see either of the animals put up to sale online to be sent to some random person who might not treat them right. But one pet was already pushing it, especially without the consent of his boyfriend and girlfriend. He should send Marnie away and wait for Noctis to come home before he gave the all green.

“How about we take both? We could use the companionship.” Shit.

Marnie’s eyes lit up, “Really? What a relief. I was worried I’d have to give them to some stranger.” She gently set the cat on the ground. The small thing immediately padded into the warm home and jumped on the couch. “I’ll bring you some toys and their beds since you’re taking them both.”

Marnie left their new pets with Prompto while she ran off to gather the supplies. Prompto ushered the dog inside and attempted to think up a convincing lie as he searched for something to make for breakfast. Unfortunately, he did not get the chance to do either.

“WHO’S DOG IS THIS?” Luna yelled, keeping at least several feet away from the strange animal as she slowly made her way across the living room towards the kitchen where Prompto had been looking for dinner items.

“Uhhhhuh… Ours now…?” He nervously answered.

“What? When did this happen Prompto!” She demanded. The dog’s eyes tracked her, but as mastiff’s were calm creatures it didn’t make any sudden, unfriendly moves toward her.

“Just now…”

“...WHY?”

“Because Marnie would have to give them away to strangers if we didn’t keep them.”

Luna groaned, “I cannot believe you Prompto.”

Prompto suspected Luna wanted to protest more, but she thankfully didn't. It was definitely a selfish choice on Prompto’s part, and he had to be realistic about choosing between the pets and Luna. If she didn’t warm up to them after a month then he’d have look into rehoming the animals. It was a cruel thing to do, and he should’ve thought about it before saying yes, but he didn’t say anything to Marnie when she brought the stuff over later that day.

Marnie brought a handful of items including a scratching post for the cat and a leash for the dog. She asked if he was going to rename them but Prompto decided they’d do that after Noctis came back since Noctis would definitely want a say. After the cows were fed and milked Prompto leashed up the dog to take her with him and Luna on a walk through the forests.

“I’m almost done with one of the junimos bundles.” Luna said. “We just need a crocus to finish the bundle in the crafts room. I’ve also been meaning to talk to you about goats.”

“Goats?”

“Yes, as well as sheep. I was able to take some of your eggs, but the junimos want goat milk as well. And wool or a duck egg. We should look towards expanding. I’ve been doing some side work for the villages, I just need five hundred gold more for the add on for the goats or we can do the ducks right now.”

“Hmmmm, I guess we can do goats. I mean, if you and Noctis are so bent on actually doing stuff for the creatures.”

“I am. They’re benevolent, Prompto. I understand spirits and you shouldn’t be scared of these ones.”

“Alright fine, let’s find the flower and help them. Here give me the money I’ll go buy the barn expansion.”

Luna patiently handed her part of the money and Prompto made the rather laborious trek up the mountain to order the expansion. The climb was difficult, but view from the mountain path was nice and the still unnamed dog made good company as she ran as far as the leash would allow to nose at fallen leaves. He was at happy that if something did go wrong she would be able to help him. Though he should’ve probably left her with Luna to see if they would bond.

“Hey there, looking for more buildings?” Robin said when Prompto entered her workshop. Maru waved to him as she headed into her lab.

“Yep. Lookin’ to get goats this time.”

“Oh, goats? Sounds fun. Milk or meat?”

“Both. You know how farms are. When they start producing you gotta eat ‘em.”

Robin pulled out her order form for him to fill out. “Oof, I don’t know if I could do it. I couldn’t imagine spending all this time caring for an animal only to eat it.”

“Thankfully it hasn’t happened just yet.” He knocked on the wood of Robin’s desk twice then turned to fill out the form.

“Thankfully. Hey, I saw your parents a few weeks ago. Are they moving in?”

“No?

Robin pouted, “Really? I sketched out a side room for them and everything.” She said. She then pulled out a small sketch of a second story to the house with a landing and a spare room. “Far enough to give you kids some privacy and close enough for them to be around. Shame, but I suppose if you kids ever want to expand your family in other ways this’ll be perfect for that too.”

Prompto twisted his nose up. The unavoidable topic. Children. It seemed the more time he spent with older people the more they were convinced his clock was ticking.

“Uhm, yeah sure. Maybe. We’re still thinking about it. Talk to us next year.”

Robin gave him a wink as he handed the paper back. “Well, you know who to call for construction service you may need.”

“Yep.” And they probably wouldn’t need that particular service any time soon.

He left Robin’s cabin and headed down to town, finding Luna at the park near the community center holding the flower she’d been looking for in her hands. He was happy she’d found what she was looking for, but also dreading the fact that she was clearly waiting for him with the intention of making him go inside with her.

“Hey Lu…” He said.

“You order the goat home?”

“Yeah…”

“Goody.” She grabbed his slightly sore arm and began dragging him towards the center. “Come on dear, it’s time for you to see them.”

He reluctantly began to follow. “Ugggggh, do I have to?”

“Yes, you must face your fears!” She said as she dragged him through the doors.

“I’m not afraid.” That was a lie. “Whatever.”

Luna took him towards one of the dangerous and dirty rooms where a clean box was. The floors were so dangerous, filled with glass and other sharp objects, that Prompto ended up putting the dog under his arm. She was just a bit heavier than he would’ve liked, but he wasn’t about to have her accidentally stab a paw during this whole thing.

“So this is all you have to do.” Luna said. “The list is right next to the box. And all you have to do is drop the correct number of items into the box and wait a second.”

Luna dropped the flower into the box, which caused absolutely nothing to happen for a very long second. Long enough that Prompto thought she was joking, but boy was he wrong. In a flash the room was filled with many of the little, green apple people all bouncing around chaotically. A second passed and all but one was gone. This one still left grabbed a star from the box and began scampering towards the main room with it.

On the desk a packet of seeds, labeled winter seeds, were left for them. Prompto was too shocked to process everything so Luna grabbed the packets and carefully guided him out of the room.

It was only when they were halfway home did Prompto finally gain the mental acuity to speak.

“Hey, Lu?”

“Yes?”

“I never want to see a junimo again.”

Luna laughed, “You big baby!”

That night he and Luna went to bed while Robin began work on improving the barn. While they slept the junimos appeared in Niflheim. They made a line up towards a room at the top of the a tower in the center of the capitol. The tower that housed no only the emperor, but a certain chancellor.

Without waking the chancellor the junimos got to work, forming a line that stretched down the staircase to the great unknown. The junimo at the top settled right next to the chancellor and began its work, pulling inky, black spots from the chancellor’s soul and dropping it to the junimo on the floor. The junimos quickly sent these spots down the line until they made it at the end where the spot was quickly broken apart and scattered, the smaller spots of ink no longer posing a threat as they were cleansed by the universe.

The junimos worked throughout the night to clear the bile from the chancellor, disappearing in the early morning just before the castle woke up. And when the chancellor woke he found that he was freed from the shackles of damned Astrals. His life would end soon without the magic that supported him, but he would soon die free from the darkness that had once consumed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm an idiot. I uploaded a chapter last week when it should've been uploaded this week. It sucks, but I'm back on schedule either way. Hope everyone likes this one.


	14. A Night Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It seems winter is no time for rest. The trio has an interview to complete and a dinner to attend. Meanwhile the junimos cleanse the world of an evil once thought untouchable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The menu featured in this chapter was based off a past menu from The French Laundry.

It was noon when Willy’s ship finally could be seen on the horizon from the pier. Luna sighed in relief at the sight of Noctis in relief at the sight of Noctis alive and well on the deck of Willy's boat, alive and healthy. The week without him had been almost boring as she and Prompto made improvements to the farm and slept.

Once the boat got to the dock Luna ran out and grabbed Noctis in a big hug. He used the momentum to spin her around once, but they didn’t get much of a chance to celebrate his return before she had to help him unload the pounds and pounds of fresh, but sea pungent, fish Willy gave him. The fish went into a medium sized hand cart that Noctis would have to return in the morning. Once they’d collected each and every slimy fish Willy unhitched his boat and headed out towards the fish market two towns over.

“How was it out there?” Prompto asked as they headed back home.

“Fun actually. Willy owns a TV and a few movies so we watched those between fishing. He also taught me a bunch of things about taking care of a boat and now I want one.”

“That’s nice.” Prompto said. “But we’re not getting one.”

“Not yet.”

“Not ever. I’m not giving you free access to a boat, that’s how you’ll get lost at sea and we’ll have to raise our children by ourselves.”

“It will be so difficult for them to be raised in a two parent household.”

“Absolutely tragic.”

They didn’t manage two steps into the house before the dog came racing to them. Noctis, unlike Luna, was over the moon at seeing some strange dog in the house. He dropped his bag and immediately gathered the large puppy in his arms, petting her and laughing as she licked his face.

“When’d we get a dog!”

“Prompto picked her up a few days ago.” Luna answered. The cat was also in the home, looking aloof from her perch.

“Aww, who’s a good girl? Who’s a good girl?” He said. “What’s her name?”

“What do you want her name to be?” Prompto asked. He began hauling the catch and other items inside as Noctis played with the puppy.

“Hmmmm, Courel.”

“You want to name her after a monster?” She didn’t like the sound of naming a soon to be large dog after something that would happily kill them all.

“Yep, cause Courels are pretty and so is she.”

“Fine then, I want the kitty to be named strawberry.” Luna announced. She didn’t have a reason for the name, but Prompto brought them in and Noctis got to pick a name so she wanted some input. They’d also, surprisingly, begun to grow on her. She did miss Pryna and Umbra, however, so she didn’t want to risk a name anywhere similar to her loves.

Before they could have some leisure time the fish had to be preserved. They laid the fish out in layers so they didn’t freeze in a giant clump in the freezer. Not a glamorous job, but at the end they’d had a neat box in the corner to take from. Once they were done Luna left her boys and the dog playing in the yard while she ran to the merchant’s cart in the forest.

The cart was a discovery she’d made only recently when she’d noticed it during one of her foraging days. A young woman sat in the cart and had a rotating selection of products to choose from and stories of lands far away from Stardew Valley. Luna loved visiting the woman and hearing her wild tales.

“We traveled through the desert recently.” The woman said. “These are some items I won after a few games, take a look.”

The woman gestured to a box full of random items.. A delicious looking apple pie, one large spool of thread, several bits and bobbles. And buried deep under the various items was a dark rock, a void essence, just like the one she’d accidentally sold a few weeks ago. Luna could barely believe it. The last piece for one of the bundles!

Needless to say she immediately paid for her find and raced towards town, gingerly carrying the essence all the way up towards the community center where it was delicately settled into the box.

Just like before there was a pause before the junimos came up, filling the room before quickly disappearing and hanging a star up for her trouble. She felt proud of herself, months of work completed with just three other boxes to go. Though these other boxes did seem more difficult. She found it difficult to see Prompto signing over so much money to the junimos or them managing to find some truffles. But she didn’t worry about that, instead picking up the ring they left behind.

That night the junimos were once again awoken. They marched into Niflheim once again, but in smaller numbers. They headed to the top floor of a tower then hid in the shadows, waiting and watching for their goal.

The emperor, in his heavy, white robes, appeared just past ten. He approached the stairs, intent to yell for a maid to come clean up a spill. He didn’t get that chance, however, when the small group of junimos came from the shadows. They quickly came up behind the ailing emperor and waited until he sucked in just enough breath to yell. Before he could make a sound every little junimo reached out and forcefully pushed the cruel man. He fell face first down the long flight of stairs, dead before he hit the bottom. By the time anyone realized what had happened the junimos were gone. And the emperor was dead.

This death would send Niflheim into a months long civil war, drawing it’s troops abroad away from their posts and leaving the people outside Niflheim’s walls safe. After these months a new leadership would emerge. Radically different from the old guard, ready to extend a hand of peace where before there was none. Ready to rebuild and rebrand the evil regime into something new. Something good.

Luna, Prompto, and Noctis would not realize this had happened for some time. After Luna returned with the ring they found themselves occupied.

“Some paper wants to interview us. And we were invited to a dinner party in a few weeks.” Prompto said. He passed Luna the letter and she briefly scanned over it. A news group in the city wanted an interview and a few pictures. A good marketing chance that could backfire spectacularly.

“This is good...ish.” She looked at the phone number. “We should do it, just make sure they don’t actually take pictures of us. We’ll tell them that we want the focus to be on our work.”

“So we’re going to take it?” Noctis asked. “I mean, that doesn’t sound too smart.”

“We’ll go by fake names.” She explained. “Something simple. And we won’t take pictures. It’ll be fine, I’ll schedule it for our next dinner. We need to strike while the iron’s hot.”

Their next dinner was a similar size to the last with sixteen people including three families with children. So they were making wild mushroom pizza with Prompto’s chicken’s eggs on the center, an appetizer of garlic fries with a fancy ranch dip, then for dessert they were doing decorate-your-own gingerbread men. Hopefully this wild spread was all the article needed.

“I hope you’re right.” Prompto said, but that was that. She called and scheduled that day. Confident that nothing would happen and things would be fine.

To congratulate Noctis being back Luna set out to make a special dinner. Fresh pasta with salmon cooked in butter and garlic. She started to work in the late afternoon. As she let the dough chill she wondered outside to find Prompto fiddling around with some copper and steal.

“Whatcha doing there?”

“Sprinklers.” He replied. “Hopefully this’ll cut down how much time we spend watering everything.”

“You can make sprinklers?”

“They’re pretty rough right now. If I can get better materials then I can make better sprinklers. But these’ll cut out at least some of the work. Especially since I’m going to expand to the rest of the land. We might get more animals too, my chef in town wants the eggs.

“Really now?”

“Yeah. I guess they’re getting Insomnian tourists and they’re all really rich so they want to give them a rich product they’d be familiar with.”

“So you’re going to breed your chickens?”

He shrugged, “Maybe. We’ll see. We’re definitely expanding the vegetables so we’ll have to make more preserves jars.” He set the sprinkler down next to two others. “I also want to get pigs. I think when Robin finishes the barn expansion I’ll get some pigs along with a few sheep.”

“”Sheep?” Cute little sheep with their little tufts of wool. Luna was looking forward to that.

That evening they celebrated Noctis’ return with some beer that ended up giving Luna a wicked headache in the morning, but she took a few painkillers and went straight to work gathering wild mushrooms for the dinner. She’d grown a bit bored, all of the sudden she had so little work to do, and she’d come to realize that growing up she rarely had the time to develop hobbies. She had her garden in Tenebrae, but gardening was what she did every day since spring. How did one transition?

Robin finished up the barn the next day and Prompto immediately went to Marnie’s to order some more animals. They took home with them three sheep and two pigs, babies this time as they had the money to do so. Luna melted at the sight of the little babies barely walking upright on their little legs. They were already soft. She couldn’t wait to see them grow.

Feeding the new animals and making them comfortable gave her something extra to focus on, but the dinner couldn’t come soon enough. She needed a structured day with things to do in order to feel normal. Without it she started feeling anxious and snappy. So on the day of the shoot she was up bright and early enough to meet the journalist and his photographer as they got off the bus.

The journalist was a handsome with styled hair and a brown, leather jacket named Joe Asai. His photographer, a kid named Richard, was young and looked to still be in high school with a camera too big for his young hands.

“This is a nice little town.” The man said, he brought with him a single photographer who began snapping pictures of the walk towards the farm. “What brought you three here, Ms...?”

“Lulu. And,well, we’d heard of it years ago so when we wanted to start a farm we decided to buy the property and settle in. We just loved where it was, close to the city, but still the country. And, like you said, very beautiful.” She lied.

“Be near nature, but not too far away from people.”

“Exactly.”

When they got back to the farm Noctis and Prompto were both already up and fed, so she had Prompto take them out back to take some pictures of some adorable animals while she began preparing things for that night. By the time all of them came back in she was well on the way with making enough dough for twenty-five pizzas.

“Please, no pictures of my face.” She said, covering her face with both hands and the photographer lowered his camera. “It’s, uhm, against my religion.”

“Really? What religion is that if I may ask?” The reporter..

“It’s a minor one. Uhm, a subset of the Hydrean church. But nevermind about that. Why don’t you come with myself and Nochel to the forests? We still need a few more wild mushrooms.” She hasily said.

It wasn’t the smoothest of transitions, but it diverted attention away from the awkward moment. She and Noctis headed out to the forests and tried not to get too anxious at the sounds of the photographer snapping his shots. Thankfully it was just after some snow so the forests were beautiful and surely took away the interests in their faces. Richard broke off to focus on the lake while Luna searched for chanterelles.

“Amazing.” Jo said as he saw Noctis pull the mushroom out from under the tree. “How do you know what’s safe to eat?”

“It’s gonna sound really stupid.” Noctis said, “But we found a book at the local library and just used that as a reference.”

The journalist looked amused at the reply, and they all fell into a comfortable rhythm of foraging and answer questions. Many of the questions were about the food, such as their process and how their farming impacted their cooking. But it occasionally veered towards their personal lives.

“Prospero was the one to make sure we made it the first six months.” Noctis said. “He knows the most about farming from his parents.”

“How did you three meet?”

“I met Lu at work.” Noctis said mostly convincingly, “And Pro at school.”

“Ah, so you were the link.”

“A little bit. Basically I couldn’t decide between two pretty blondes so I got both.”

“He means that he wore both of us down until we settled.” Luna joked.

When they returned Prompto had set the seating area up which proved to be the perfect spot for pictures to be taken. They made an early dish for the two men so they could take pictures and eat a bit first. They weren’t going to stay through the entire dinner as that would have been very disruptive for their guests. So Luna set them up with a seat of their own and let them talk with Prompto over an early dinner while she started on the food for the rest of the evening. The fries were soaked in water then dried and Noctis was going through the painstaking process of peeling and chopping several heads of garlic to make sure their garlic fries had punch.

After their interview with Prompto the two men came back in, said their good-byes, and left. Wrapping up a slightly tense day. The resulting article came out a few days later in the local paper, which they knew came out when they got several letters asking to RSVP for their next dinner. It could have gone wrong, she expected it to go wrong. She almost wanted to thank the gods for their success.

Their next social interaction was a week later. The dinner invite had been for the restaurant Prompto supplied and Prompto had accepted eagerly. Luna made sure to buy a knit hat and piled most of her hair inside of it, then a relatively modest jacket. Noctis also covered his hair and wore very simple, non-black button down with jeans. Prompto didn’t need to hide himself, but he did wear a hat in solidarity with his coat and slacks. They left early in the morning to make it to the bus that went into the city.

It felt weird to be surrounded by so many people after spending months in Pelican Town. Luna almost felt overwhelmed at the sight of it all. She almost felt scared too. Felt like at any point someone might recognize her, but in the city Luna was just one of many. Why would she be Lunafreya when just as many other girls could be Lunafreya? And Noctis was in an even better position, no one outside of Insomnia really knew what he looked like.

“It’s over here.” Prompto said. He guided them down the streets towards the downtown mall area. They had a few hours before the actual dinner so they all went and focused on getting necessities. Luna broke off to wander through some of the shops Prompto and Noctis had no interest in. She browsed through clothes stores for young women, looked over the cute clothes she had no use for. She thought for a second of maybe buying a cute dress, but even the most tame was still too fancy for her now. There was no need for jewelry or decorative furniture. As much as she would like to buy something to remember the trip by, she couldn’t find anything useful. But she couldn’t say that she was surprised. Malls typically didn’t have a wide selection of practical items for farming. She did, thankfully, find a lovely blanket in a home supply shop. It was knit, likely not by hand, and a dark grey color. But they needed more blankets at home to stave off cold toes and it was an item she wasn’t able to make on her own. She bought that and reconvened with her boys near the mall entrance.

While she’d wandered the mall Noctis and Prompto had gotten a bags worth of games, most of them on a discount. They were mostly older titles and mostly useless, but they would provide them some entertainment. She even spied a familiar racing game in their bags, a title she once played with Ravus when they were both really young, so at least there were stuff for her to play.

They made the twenty minute walk from the mall towards the restaurant, which had a “closed for special event” sign hung on the front. It was a beautiful establishment with large open windows that gave a view of the immaculate buildings and the people running to and fro. Prompto paused to take a few pictures before they all headed inside where a hostess greeted them and showed them to their tabel.

It was then that Luna felt a bit insecure. She’d arrived in a simple green dress, all of their clothes were simple and typically made of flannel now, and while none of the other women arrived in anything groundbreaking they had clearly dressed up for the occasion. Many of them were wearing a wedding ring or another piece of jewelry, their dresses were made out of a material nicer than cloth, some even wore heels or sandals.

Luna knew she shouldn’t be so hard on herself. She was a farmer now. If she’d seen a girl like her a year ago, even at a charity event or ball, she would not have thought ill of her. But she’d always kept up appearances if not for herself then for the people she was meant to serve. It almost felt like an insult to the owner to arrive in anything less than a custom gown.

“This is your table.” The hostess said. She sat them down at a table near the windows. A basket of flatbread was at the center of the table with a side of butter, feta cheese, and sliced green onion. It was a combination she’d never thought to try but she definitely thought to bring it back with them for their menu at the farm.

There was a single tasting menu on the table that Prompto picked up and began scanning while she and Noctis began scanning the restaurant looking for some good gossip. A woman had worn a bright pink ball gown to the event, clearly a remnant from years past. A gentleman had a fish tie and several swollen fingers, likely their fish supplier. Another man was on his second glass of wine already. All of these people were of course targets of their gossip. Why did the woman wear the garish dress? What happened with the man’s hands? What would the man do when he finished off his third or fourth glass? There were always people like them around to provide entertainment to two bored aristocrats.

“Should I get the fish?” Prompto asked.

Noctis, who hadn’t even looked at the menu, turned, “It’s not that kinda menu Prom.”

“What?”

“It’s, like, just them telling you what you’re eating.”

“What? Since when?”

“Since forever. Fancy restaurants don’t care what kinda food you like.”

“Shhh.” She chided. “Be nice, it’s a free meal.”

“I am nice, but I don’t know what an endive is.” Prompto protested.

“It’s a leaf vegetable, like romaine almost.” An old man said. He’d turned around in his seat while his wife had gone off to the bathroom. He looked fairly well off for a farmer, his shoes were leather and his jacket had silk lining. He was definitely more well off then most at the restaurant.

“Oh…”

“You kids are pretty young to be ownin’ a farm. You three immortals or something?”

“Or something.”

“We’re the owners of Carbuncle Farms.” Luna said, she held out her hand, which he politely shook. “We actually started recently, though Prompto comes from a farming family.”

“Lester Lee, nice to meet you. I supply the truffles for Mrs. Farroh. Along with a few other specialty items.”

“Oh, sounds like good money.” Luna said.

“Are you a drug dealer?” Prompto asked.

“Prompto!”

Lester laughed, “That’s right. I sell culinary crack.”

“Lester!” His wife said as she sat back down. She was similarly dressed in a silk, black gown and heels. “Don’t say that. You wouldn’t make nearly as much money!”

“That’s true. You kids are the ones out in Stardew Valley right? I don’t have many contacts out there. ” He said as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a card, “If you guys find anything interesting while foraging or farming let me know. If Farroh doesn’t want it I can surely find someone who will.”

Luna took the man’s card as his wife chastised him, “Honestly Lester leave them alone. Young people people don’t need an old man butting in.”

“Thank you so much Mr Lee.” Luna said. She slipped the card in Prompto’s pocket, very intent on using it if the time ever came. Not soon later their first course arrived with a glass of red wine.

The menu had said “oysters and pearls” which was a suitable name. Oysters with savory tapioca pearls and caviar. Something she was used to and ingredients she didn’t necessarily enjoy. She wasn’t much for shellfish, but she was able to appreciate the beautiful plating and the briny taste. The portion was small, tasting menus typically had small plates as they usually had several courses. Around them people buzzed with conversation on the food, and there were some comments from hearty farmers unused to such a delicate meal. Noctis drew her into a conversation about the man with wine as his voice was loud enough that they could make out him talking about a run in he had with a woman the day before.

The next course was a salad with Persimmons, Winter Radishes and Nasturtium Leaves. Then a beautiful John Dory fillet with a lemon and caper sauce and roasted cauliflower. A plate of lobster with spinach and a saffron-vanilla emulsion. Then a small break with some bread with the butter and jam they supplied the restaurant. Some roasted duck came next with various root vegetables. A portion of lamb with some roasted potatoes. Then, finally, some fondue where she could taste the truffles shaved into the cheese.

Needless to say they all felt stuffed towards the end. It didn’t stop them from indulging in the fruit, ice cream, and pastries brought out for dessert. Prompto had already tapped out by then so Noctis ate his bowl of ice cream along with the extra brownie.

Some other people had gotten very romantic over their night, scooting closer to one another and whispering sweet nothings. She and Noctis wanted to eavesdrop and gossip some more, but they had a bus to catch so they left a fair tip for the waiter and headed out into the street. Amazed that their products went into something so delicious.

“It was nice to see where all our stuff goes to.” Noctis said as they walked. “Nice to see the last stop.”

“It was. I never used to think about the names of where the food came from. I didn’t know you could fill an entire restaurant with only a portion of the people who grew it.” She said.

“Only a portion? You don’t think that was everyone?”

“It wasn’t.” Prompto said. “I overheard some of them say that their kids were handling the farm.”

“We should get one of those. Free labor.”

“I don’t think it’s free.”

“Cheap labor.”

“That seals it, we can never have kids.” Luna said. “Let’s just stick with the animals alright?”

Noctis pouted, “No. I will not be happy until I have so many children we can start a soccer team.”

“Have fun giving birth to seven children. You definitely have the hips for it.”

Noctis squaked indigently but didn’t have the chance to reply. A block away their bus rounded the corner and they all began running so as to not miss it.


	15. Treehouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang head off to their surprise vacation in the forest.

"We’re going to my grandmother’s house in Gralea this year.” Maru sighed, “So we won’t go up to the treehouse.”

Prompto had to raise an eyebrow at that comment. He’d spent the past hour happily drinking a beer and making polite conversation next to a fire with friends. He didn’t have the brain power to imagine Maru’s entire family crammed into a child’s treehouse. Didn’t seem fun or practical.

“No.” Penny said, “It’s so beautiful up there.”

“I know. Mom was calling people to see if they’d check up on it. She likes to make sure it’s still holding up.”

“No one will?”

“Everyone’s busy.” She shrugged.

“What’s this treehouse?” Prompto finally asked, when no one voluntarily filled him in.

“Oh, it’s our vacation home up down by the lakes. My mom bought some land a long time ago and built a house in a couple of trees. We go there every year and it’s so nice.” She sighed. “Do you guys do anything?”

Prompto shrugged, “We don’t have anything planned. We used to just spend time with our families. But we’re sticking here for right now.”

“You have work?”

“Nah. We just have to set up autofeeders for the chickens and then we’ll be almost completely out of work for the winter.”

“... Do you think you three could go up?”

Penny’s eyes widened. “Oh yeah! You guys should. The area’s so pretty, and there’s a town nearby.”

“Yeah, I’m sure my mom would appreciate it. And you can stay up there and have a nice vacation.”

Prompto didn’t exactly know how he felt about the invitation, living in a tree for a few days didn’t seem like much of a vacation, but if anything they could check on the cabin then spend a day or two in the town nearby. With spring fast approaching they should spend their winter out of town before they had to get back to work.

“Just let me know so I can ask mom for the key.” Maru said.

“Yeah sure.” He said quickly. “We can go out and take a look.”

“Thanks, I’m sure my mom’ll appreciate it. She might even give you a discount on another project.”

She did not give them a discount. But she did pull extra hours on the coop upgrade and got it done a day sooner so they could go, then gave them a list of what to do and not do while up there. Prompto reluctantly accepted the invitation and promised Abigail some eggs if she checked in on their house a few times while they were gone and put another egg into the incubator for them. In just a few days he, Luna, and Noctis had packed a weeks worth of clothes, the game system, and a few books. They got on the bus and sat on the three hour ride down to the center of the valley.

Pelican Town was at the edge of the valley up in the mountains so it got a fair bit more snow than the central valley, and they saw some of the snow melt away as they headed down. Out of all of them Noctis was the most happy about that since he apparently was allergic to any weather that didn’t allow him to sleep under a tree. They passed through several towns, all incredibly similar to Pelican Town, with the occasional stop to pick up someone else or to let a person off.

Robin gave them a map which came in handy when they touched base in the nearest town, Raven Town, which was just a smidge bigger than Pelican Town. They stopped by the general store for food for dinner then headed on up. Prompto initially thought they would have difficulty finding Robin’s cabin, but there was no disguising what was a very obvious house elevated several feet from the ground with the help of trees. It was about the size of Noctis’ apartment back home, only up in the branches of a very sturdy tree. There was a staircase that circled around the trunk with a large grill and seating area at the base that was shielded from the rain by the house above it. The inside was actually very big, with a large bed in a loft in the main room, then a second room with a divider that was likely for Sebastian and Maru. The smaller room had two small beds and two small desks that were divide by a black curtain. In the main room there were two chairs, a TV, and a door that went out to a small deck. WIndows let in plenty of light, showing off the various branches of the trees they were living in.

“Wow, no wonder Robin wants to make sure this was still standing.” Luna said. She went off to check the lake nearby along with the shower, which was outside of the house in it’s own, separate enclosure. Noctis climbed the ladder and got a good look at the bed above.

“They left us a bunch of blankets.” Noctis said.

Prompto had to admit that this was beautiful, and truly a testament to Robin’s carpentry skills. There was even power. Noctis was able to plug his system in and hook it up to the TV without worrying.

Prompto checked to make sure all of the hand crafted furniture in the house was still intact then headed out and checked the land around it. They were surrounded by forests and there were definitely wild animals running around, he knew that much at least. There was a treeline, and the lake looked clean with what looked like fish in it so if Noctis wanted to fish he could. Otherwise town was a thirty minute walk and they could grab supplies there.

For dinner they started up the grill and laid down hot dogs. There was a separate fire pit that they lit with some dried wood for heat. It did suck that they had to be outside to cook, but it was fun to open up two bags of chips and nearly burn the hot dogs. They ate and told ghost stories until they were exhausted and fell asleep with a pile of blankets between them and the cold.

“We should stay here at least a few days.” Luna said in the morning as Prompto fried up some bacon and eggs in a pan. “It’s nice.”

“You’re not starving for civilization?” Noctis joked.

“What makes you think I am? This place reminds me a lot of Tenebrae, you’re the city boy.”

“Which makes me appreciate nature more than you.”

Luna gave an unladylike snort that betrayed how far they’d corrupted her before they all turned to dinner.

Sleeping in the treehouse was shockingly nice. Even though there was no heater to be found, they had a fire going and a hill of blankets to sleep under. It was dangerous to spread out as an uncontrolled toe or arm could let in the chill and freeze them all to death. But they were used to it. The bed at the farm was already cramped so they were already comfortable practically being on top of one another. Luna snored, Noctis laid there like a warm brick. Prompto felt surprisingly comfortable sleeping so farm from home.

They woke up relatively early and had breakfast before heading out. Noctis changed into a pair of shorts and dived into the nearby lake head first despite temperatures being just above freezing. Prompto watched as Noctis immediately surfaced, chin shaking as he realized what a giant mistake he made.

A mistake he made again. And again. And again but from a nearby tree. After watching Noctis cannonball in Prompto felt the draw to do something stupid himself and he climbed into another tree nearby to perform a gold medal worthy belly flop into the biting cold water. Luna squealed when she was splashed but that didn’t stop any of them from eventually taking at least one dive into the lake. By lunch they were horribly soaked and probably well on their way to contracting some fatal disease, but the only one who had to truly worry about it was Noctis who had to stand and make burgers while Prompto and Luna sat by the nearby fire.

They had to leave sometime, but Prompto was having too much fun just existing in the little corner of nature Robin had built. Here they didn’t have to worry about cooking for rich people or preparing for spring. He contemplated buying a piece of land and building a similar set up for them to all go to during winters from then on out, wondering how much Robin paid for the land and how much time it took for her to build everything. Maybe they could pay for her to build it for them? How would that work into the budget?

Another night spent sleeping in nature. Thankfully none of them had a fever but Noctis’ skin was cracked to hell and back from how dry it had gotten and his nose wouldn’t stop running. Despite that he seemed ready to get out and explore the rest of Robin’s land after breakfast.

They began heading north from the home with no destination or goal in mind besides doing something. Just a few meters away from the perimeter of the lake they found food prints, clear and defined from recent activity. The prints were clearly of one animal, and went a few meters further north before a second pair of prints came. When these two prints got near each other they grew erratic and messy, as if the two animals had gotten in a kind of fight. Just further up the second set scrambled away and the first set erratically kept going.

“Wonder what happened here.” Luna said sarcastically.

“Awww.” Noctis said. “Should we find it?”

“Sure, I bet it’ll be good eatin’.” Prompto said.

“What?”

“Prompto what the hell?”

“What? I mean if it’s already dead…”

“No, shush.” Luna said. “We’re finding it to help it. Not to eat it. Honestly Prompto, what’s wrong with you? Come on, let’s find it.”

“Don’t eat it.” Noctis said before they began following the marks.

The trail went further and further away from civilization and towards a river. In some cases the marks where deep from the animal not moving as quickly, or they were light from it quickly passing through the area.

“Should we be following some strange animal?” Noctis asked. “What if we get attacked by the thing that attacked it?”

“Scared?” Prompto teased.

“Yeah, for you two. I can’t fight a horde of monsters and get you two out.”

“It’s not a horde Noctis.” Luna said. “It’s probably just one or two at most.”

“It could bring its friends, you never know.”

“You’re just scared.” Prompto said. Noctis crossed his arms and pouted, but it wasn’t long before they finally stumbled upon the injured animal. It was a young deer, young enough to assume that its parents should be nearby. Its rear leg was gouged at, from the looks of things by claws that could easily belong to a medium sized predator. It whined and snorted as it failed to get back up on its feet.

“Awww.” Luna cooed. “We have to help it.”

“Sure I’ll just need a can of soda and five minutes.” Noctis said.

“It can’t drink a potion… can it?” Prompto asked.

“I’ll handle it.” Luna said, she slowly began stepping closer to the wounded animal. The animal began squirming and panicking, but Luna slowly continued until she was close enough to reach out and touch the injured leg. Her hand didn’t quite touch the leg, but she was able to use her magic to quickly knit part of the wound up. Prompto watched, a bit amazed, as the bleeding stopped and the deeper tissue closed up. Luna pulled her hand away when the wound was almost completely closed, and looking significantly better than it did originally. The deer immediately turned and rushed off back into the forest as Luna seemed to fade a bit.

“That was harder than expected.” She joked, she rose to her feet, looking just a tad more unsteady then she did before.

“Welp.” Prompto said. “There goes dinner.

Despite the energy healing took Luna still managed to have enough energy in her to chase Prompto down the path for at least a minute while waving a broken off tree branch threateningly. Once everyone had calmed down they made it back to the cabin where he and Noctis played video games while Luna rested.

They stayed three more days up in the area on what had to be their first real vacation. They followed a few trails, grilled a lot of meat, and slept long hours under piles of blankets. Prompto almost didn’t want to leave, but they couldn’t exactly afford to leave the farm for too long. They reluctantly packed their bags and caught the bus back home.

At home Abigail had taken great care of their animals. She’d stored the milk and eggs in the fridge like they’d asked and left a note on the desk.

Hey guys, hope you had a fun trip. The sheep have wool and I put an egg in the incubator for you. I already took my share, see ya.

“Wool?” Luna said, “That was fast..”

Wool was good, but he didn’t want to think about it until the day after. So he dropped his bags in the room and collapsed into bed, waking up the next day to check on the animals. He put off the work with the sheep as much as possible, but they eventually had to get the dirty work of shearing down the thick layer of wool they’d already managed to grow and get to work making it into a product to sell.

Their sheep were always well behaved, but Prompto was a bit nervous that they’d start kicking if he nicked one of them so he had Luna there as backup to sooth them and keep them still. He began at the front and slowly began shearing the wool off. It landed in a pile of semi-white on the ground like big clouds, the process taking him until lunchtime.

Processing wool was not fun. It was long, tedious, and honestly he should’ve skipped buying them altogether. Wool had to be cleaned and then sent through a long treatment process that they had only researched the night before starting. It also involved a bunch of equipment they had to borrow from Marnie that Prompto hoped and prayed they wouldn’t break before figuring out how to use. Prompto was not happy to have to wake up early and get started on it before their other chores. He was no happy to wash it or comb it out or the time consuming, mind numbing process of spinning the chunks into usable yarn. The entire process stretched on with for days until the piles of wool turned into just a few balls of yarn. It was a process just long enough for all of the sheep to grow back every inch of wool sheared off of them.

“We’re going to be drowned if we don’t build a machine for this.” Luna said. She flipped through a book until she found a crafting blueprint for one. Prompto hurriedly spent the day building the machine necessary to process everything so he could off load all of the duties to technology.

Once they had the process automated Luna took some excess up to the junimos, which scored them a new cheese press, and kept the rest for herself to use. Prompto thought that maybe they should sell it, but he saw her bring home a book on knitting and some needles so he figured she had finally found the hobby she definitely needed. His suspicions were proven correct when a week later she present him with a very unique looking scarf.

“We should try the wool out before we sell it. So try it on, wear it a bit. What do you think?” She said quickly as she wrapped the lopsided scarf around his neck.

“It’s, uhm, not itchy.”

That seemed to be a very diplomatic, and welcome, answer, “Perfect. Once the wool starts coming out how I want it we should look into dying.”

“Lovely…”

At least it wasn’t a bad investment. Well, not yet at any rate.

Prompto mulled over exactly how he was going to get rid of the horrendous scarf as the Junimos once again got to work. In this case it was difficult to tell where they were as there was no land nor sky in this dimension. They cut through the darkness, happily hopping through the void for many man hours until they found him.

Ifrit’s domain was dark and dangerous. Infected just like he was. But the Junimos were unbothered by this. They effortlessly crossed through the realm until they found Ifrit. Astrals did not sleep nor eat, but somehow he did not notice the tiny apples approaching him. Once the junimos were close enough they got to work, extracting the dark matter from his very being. The process did not hurt. It was not something he noticed. Slowly, over the course of hours, they pulled the darkness from this astral’s body. When he left they waited in the realm until his return, when they would resume their activities.

Astrals did not understand the Junimos. Could not detect them or stop them. It took many weeks to cleanse Ifrit, a process he noticed but could not comprehend. When they were done Ifrit’s rage was quelled. His bloodlust abated.

Of course Prompto didn’t know any of this. Instead he’d quickly became overwhelmed with Luna’s “gifts” of lumpy sweaters and hole-y socks. He suspected that even Luna could tell that her creations weren’t great, but he didn’t want her to give up so he would wear whatever she gave him for at least a week before silently offloading it into the trash behind Gus’ bar. It was definitely the thought that counted.

“Hey Prom.” Noctis said, when Prompto came back after dumping a pair of “gloves” in the trash. “The egg… uh… hatched.”

“Why do you sound nervous?” Prompto did not like the way Noctis was looking inside the coop like they’d hatched a dinosaur or something.

“I mean, come look at it.”

Prompto walked up and peaked over Noctis’ shoulder inside the coop. Everything looked normal at first, a bunch of happy hens happily laying their eggs and eating their feed. But in the corner, near the broken eggshell, sat a dark, black, angry looking bird.

“Huh…”

“Is that a chicken? I didn’t know they came in that color…”

“They do but I’m not entirely sure it’s a chicken.”

“Should. Should we get rid of it?”

Prompto ran through the cost benefit analysis. Benefits: No creepy chicken in the coop. Costs: Time it took to hatch the egg and the potential revenue from it laying eggs, especially if it ended up being a rare, recessive breed. Creepy chicken? Money?

Money.

“Leave it alone. For now.” He said. “Just, you know, make sure to count the chickens to make sure it hasn’t eaten any.”

The black chicken’s head snapped from the ground to look straight at them. Noctis quickly slammed the door shut to break eye contact.

“This place just gets weirder and weirder.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for two weeks from now when Noctis eats over 1000$ worth of food. I am not joking.


	16. The Feast of the Winter Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pigs unearth some very valuable products and Noctis search for a gift to give a very special someone.

“Looks like we’re part of a gift exchange.” Luna said after grabbing the mail. “I wonder what kind of food Abigail likes the most…”

The letter had been written by Lewis, and listed Noctis’ partner as Demetrius. A bit unfortunate, he didn’t know much about Demetrius at all given that he wasn’t necessarily a hot topic. Noctis thought about seeing if he could trade partners with Prompto who got Sebastian, but he doubted he’d win that fight. What things did a man like Demetrius need? Stethoscopes?

He wondered and pondered throughout his morning chores. Luna had begun spinning wool and some of that was getting sent in the box since they didn’t have enough to warrant selling it on their own. Noctis supposed that he could steal some and give it to Demetrius, but he knew Demetrius wouldn’t appreciate something like that.

Noctis spent a few days mulling the topic. Prompto had it easy since he could just cook up a big vat of pumpkin soup. Luna had already found a chunk of amethyst for Abigail. Noctis tried to think up of a food to make for Demetrius, but he couldn’t say that he’d ever seen the man eat. Did Demetrius even like soup? Noctis began contemplating pickled food items as he headed out one morning to check on the pigs.

The pigs had gotten really fat really quickly so they weren’t as cute as they were before. But Noctis still loved them. He loved all the animals on their farm. They were like children. Probably. What was the difference between a chicken and a five year old anyway? Well… one couldn’t name a five year old Bacon or Ribs so there was one difference he supposed.

Noctis hopped the fence to the piggy pen to go check on Bacon and Ribs, both of whom seemed content to eating some of the sparse grass. He sidestepped what he thought was piggy poo and approached them both to give the a piggy pat. When he left he moved to sidestep the brown blob again only to realize that the blob was not poop. He went to touch it, hesitating a moment before pulling it from the ground. It was mostly round with strange little bumps on the skin, and one whiff of the not great smell told him exactly what it was.

“Hey guys do you think Demetrius likes truffles?” Noctis asked, carrying the small blob inside to where his loves were spinning yarn.

“Maybe. But I never imagined Demetrius as being a big cook.” Luna said, not looking up from the TV. “But if you’re going to town for truffle oil can you pick me up a book of knitting patterns?”

“Not oil, actual truffle.”

“We don’t have the money for truffle.” She deadpanned.

“But I found one.”

“What?” Luna turned her head to finally looked at both him and the truffle in his hand. “Where did you get that?”

“The pigs digged it up.” Noctis said as Luna dropped what she was doing to walk over and examine the truffle. “Maybe I can just give him this?”

“The exchange is a week away Noctis and I doubt this’ll last.” She gently pulled it from his hand. “Plus this is a lot of money. We shouldn’t just give it away. Maybe we can sell it.”

“To who?”

“Uhm….? I don’t know. Perhaps Gus will purchase it?”

“What would he use it in?” Prompto said. “Who around here, and be realistic, who around here even knows what a truffle is? Let’s just send it off in the box.”

“It’ll lose value if we let it sit out too long. I could pickle it.”

“What does pickled truffle taste like?”

“I’ve no idea.”

“We could mix it with salt.”

“But would salt preserve a mushroom?”

Noctis, having grown bored of the back and forth, decided on a course of action himself. He looked at the barely washed wad of fungus that was one of the most expensive delicacies in the world and decided, then and there, to take the whole thing and shove it in his mouth.

It was not a pleasant experience.

“Why would you do that?” Luna moaned as Noctis furiously scrubbed the taste out of his mouth with a toothbrush.

“It’s crazy that this shit goes on everything fancy people eat. Is it an aphrodisiac? Do you feel aroused?” Prompto asked.

“I find nothing arousing!” Noctis protested, disgusted at the thought.

“We know.”

“Shame you spat it out like that, I thought it might go well in ice cream.” Luna said.

“Ugh. It’s not bacon, it doesn’t go in ice cream.” Prompto said.

“It’s rich people bacon.”

“The revolution is coming.”

Noctis tuned out of their minor bickering just long enough to get some more chores done and to spend some time doing anything but thinking up a gift for Demetrius. If he were a real adult he would’ve done some detective work to see what Demetrious actually liked, but he was not a real adult and thus he was going to wait until the last minute like he always did for everything else.

The next day everything was completely normal, with only six days until the exchange. Luna was all set to hand out some preserves and Prompto had found a frozen tear in pristine condition he was sure Sebastian would enjoy. Noctis was the one lagging behind so he took a walk around the woods and looked for something he could give Demetrius. Maybe an acorn? Were acorns gifts? He ignored that question to go fishing instead.

Five days until the exchange. Noctis went out to give Bacon and Ribs some hats Luna made when he saw two new poop-looking things on the ground. He immediately grabbed them and headed inside where a call was made.

“Well, this is certainly a nice looking nugget.” Lester Lang said.

Luna had managed to lure the salesman to their remote village with the promise of a home cooked meal for himself and his wife who was also in the business of buying and selling fancy ingredients. Neither of them cooked and it appeared that lacking that skill meant you were always willing to go above and beyond for a free, halfway decent meal. He was halfway through his soup before he actually paused to take the item he was called in for.

“The current market value for a nuggets of this quality is 781 gold per ounce. So, I will pay you 500 gold for each of them.”

“Only -?”

“Sounds good.” Prompto said.

Lester dug into his pocket and pulled out the money. The small nuggets went into his box of truffles in the back of his van, which was filled with various other delicacies such as rare mushrooms and freshly caught puffer fish in a cooler.

“If you guys find more of these let me know. I’ll swing by and pick it up.”

“Thank you for coming out all this way.” Luna said.

Lester drove off in his van of expensive ingredients, leaving them a bit richer. They weren’t exactly cash strapped, but some surprise money was never unappreciated. Noctis appreciated the nice steaks the money bought, but he did not appreciate the five seconds it took for his brain to wonder about Cheeseburger and Meatloaf, happily chewing hay in the barn. They didn’t need to know.

Noctis tended to enjoy the holidays, but there was a sort of bittersweetness to these holidays. After the holiday they’d have very little time until spring and three seasons worth of work. To top it off it would soon mark a year of them living down in Stardew Valley, and Noctis couldn’t quite believe that they’d not only survived, but thrived, out in Stardew Valley. Despite that thriving he still had nothing for Demetrius just days away from the festival.

“Maybe you could catch him a fish?” Luna suggested as they walked towards the newly discovered quarry. Noctis hadn’t known about the area, and it took Abigail wandering in the wrong direction before anyone else knew of it. No one really seemed to want to go up there so they all decided it’d be good to look and see what they could dig up.

“As much as I would love that I don’t think fishing can solve all of my problems.”

“Shame, it’s the skill with the most experience points.”

“Who taught you that? Did Prompto?”

“I play games too sometimes Noctis. Just old ones that don’t need DLC or lootboxes.”

“Since when?”

“Since a long time. Don’t look so put out, we can’t know everything about each other you know.”

A sobering point. Noctis tried not to think about anything else he didn’t know about as they found geode after geode in a surprisingly profitable trip. They split the loot between each other and barely managed to haul all of it back and dump it in their ‘valuable rocks’ piles.

“Hey, look at what Bacon found.” Prompto said. In his hands he held an already cleaned piece of truffle. This one was a bit smaller, but on the counter there was a small pile of bigger pieces. “We should cook some.”

“Are you becoming a fancy boy Prompto?” Luna teased. “This is a pretty rare ingredient, if we don’t cook it right then we’ll just waste it.”

“What does this stuff even get put in?”

“Well.” She said, dropping the stuff to walk over to Prompto, “During dinners with Niflheim statesmen they put truffle everywhere. It went over every meal whenever they could. We could scramble it with egg, or stir it in with pasta.”

“That’ll work? You don’t think it’ll just make it go bad? I mean, what is truffle anyway?”

“It’s a fungus.”

“Wow, don’t like that description.”

As unsexy a description that was, Luna was the most fancy of them all and therefore was entrusted with cooking the truffles. They watched her look around the kitchen at the various ingredients they had laying around. She looked at various pastas and canned sauces, contemplated eggs, before landing on a recipe Noctis didn’t recognize at first. He’d of course known that when one combined cream, eggs, and sugar it tended to make a custard, but he didn’t quite connect that with ice cream until Luna broke out the medium sized ice cream maker. She dumped the custardy, truffley mixture into the machine and then got started on reheating soup.

Noctis did not like the idea of any of this. Neither the soup, which was mixed vegetables with some chicken, nor the truffle ice cream. Noctis was not a man who experimented with his food. He consumed only meat and bread, and sometimes potatoes when he was feeling healthy. He did not need truffles anywhere, he did not need vegetables, just a cheeseburger.

These facts, however, did not stop him from sneaking out in the middle of the night to eat leftover ice cream. He was not proud. On paper truffles were gross and he hadn’t seen much reason to seek them out. But, of course, things tasted better out in the middle of nowhere. And truffles were like chocolate. Really unappetizing raw and unsweetened, but great when mixed with a ton of sugar and cream. Great enough to get into trouble when your boyfriend and girlfriend find out.

Maybe not great enough to get chased out of the house over.

Noctis was chased out of the house and told to get on with the chores. It wasn’t really much of a punishment, it was his day to go out into the freezing cold and make sure their animals were happy and healthy. Pigs got fed, cows got milked. But Noctis took pause at the chickens.

The angry, black chicken had been growing the past few weeks and it seemed to be fully mature given the fact that it sat proudly next to a single, black and red egg. Noctis pointedly avoided that egg as he collected the other eggs, then slowly and carefully approached the bird. It looked at him, eyes tracking his movements. Noctis could hear his heart beating in his ears as he reached out. His hand encircled the egg. And the evil chicken did not move.

Noctis quickly set the thing in the little egg basket and raced out of the chicken coop.

“So that’s what it looks like…” Luna said. She took the egg and spun it around. It felt like a normal egg, except for the coloring. “Do you think it’s safe to eat?”

“I don’t think it is.” Prompto said. “Let’s throw it away and give that chicken away.”

“No no no!” Noctis exclaimed. He quickly snatched the egg away and held it close. “I have an idea.”

“... okay?”

“The feast is soon right? I’m gonna give it to Demetrius.”

“You think Demetrius is going to want a single, black egg?”

“Maybe. He seems the type. Maybe it’ll spark his interest and he’ll look into it for us.”

Luna sighed, “Do whatever you want Noctis. It’s not like we’ve ever been able to stop you.”

“Thank you. I love you too.” He leaned over and kissed the top of her annoyed head.

Noctis collected the black eggs in the days leading up to the festival. They went into a small box that he politely requested Luna wrap. Which she did happily and without any snark. This was the box he took with him on the walk to the village where the festival had begun.

He didn’t know who decorated the area, but he knew they did an amazing job. There was food on the table, Noctis didn’t quite catch who’d made it, and decorations everywhere. Cut out snowflakes the kids did in class. Tables decorated with long table covers and nice silverware. Numerous fires lit around the area in a futile attempt to keep out the cold. Lights everywhere, and people laughing and dancing to the music. 

Noctis had come with his loves, but he soon found himself alone as they separated off to chat with friends. Noctis took that moment to load up a plate with mashed potatoes and a giant piece of roast with a big glass of wine to drink. He found a table where Gus had set up shop explaining how to make homemade candy canes.

The festival was a free for all, so Noctis wasn’t able to find Demetrius for quite some time. There was always people grabbing food or dancing or just moving in general. For such a small town it was surprisingly difficult to pin down one man. As Noctis hunted down the man to give him his gift, the giver assigned to him was also searching. Emily managed to catch him first, cornering him by the buffet when he was looking to grab a cup of mulled wine.

“Hey, I got you for the gift exchange.” She said, practically buzzing as she handed over her gift wrapped in a trendy, pink and blue box.

“Oh nice.” Noctis exclaimed. He put his things down and tore open his present to see that he’d received a ring.

“It’s a glow ring. I found it while foraging one day. You like it?”

“A glow ring?”

“Yeah.” She said. She held it flat in her hand and had him cup his hands over the ring and look through the crack. Once it was shrouded in darkness he could see that it emitted a bright, yellow light.

“Cool!”

“Right?” She smiled. “I knew it matched your soul!”

Noctis gladly took the gift while pointedly not asking what exactly she meant by that. As nice as it was he had to face giving his own, significantly shittier gift to Demetrious while Emily raced off to find her sister. Noctis spent just a bit more time searching before he found Demetrious sitting at a table with Maru, several empty dishes littered the table. Noctis solemnly approached the two.

“Oh, were you my gift giver?” Demetrius asked before Noctis needed to introduce himself.

“Yup.” Noctis said. He sat the box down in front of Demetrius. “Hope you like it.”

Demetrius carefully unwrapped the wrapping paper, then peeling off the tape the kept the boxed closed. He looked a bit confused at the sight of the eggs, and Noctis quickly began thinking that the gift was a complete and utter dud.

“...What is this?”

He thought right.

“It’s, uh, eggs. We have a new chicken and it laid these strange eggs we thought were interesting.”

“New chicken?”

“Yeah. It’s black. We actually don’t know where we got it.”

“Sounds like a void chicken.” Maru said.

“It does sound like a void chicken.”

“...What’s a void chicken?”

Demetrius set the box on the table. “They’re really rare, it’s said that a witch comes to a random coop and will change one laid egg into a void egg. I don’t believe such tales, but I have yet to find any proof of such nonsense.” He said. “I will have to research these eggs.”

“Maybe we can figure out how to create a void chicken ourselves!” Maru said, excited. “Thank you Noctis, this was a wonderful gift!”

The eggs turned into Maru’s gift as she gleefully took the box and gave the eggs a once over. Noctis took that moment to leave and finally meet up with Luna and Noctis. Luna had received a frozen geode from Clint, and Prompto an ancient doll from Jas. Interesting presents, Noctis was sure Clint wanted them to pay to get the geode cracked, but it was late and all of them wanted to head home and sleep into spring. Once they had the chance they broke away from the feast and headed home.

“How long do you think I have to keep this before I can throw it away?” Prompto asked on the walk back.

“A day or two. I doubt the children will really care with all the gifts they received.” Luna said.

“So…” Noctis said after a minute of silence. “We’ve got spring coming up soon, right? You guys ready?”

“Of course we are Noctis.” Luna said.

“Yeah. The question is are you ready? We’ll have a lot more work to do then we did last spring.”

“Great… Guess I have to beat Space Blasters before the morning.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who's ready for spring? I'm ready for spring.


	17. Beef, it's what's for dinner.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Death is a part of life. As is the crushing realization that you almost got caught doing what you're not supposed to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning that there is talk, no description or details, of animal butchery.
> 
> This is why you shouldn't name your farm animals after food (or reserve it for video game animals.)
> 
> In case you were wondering, the other two cows are named Burger and Gyuudon.

“Wow, nature did not waste time.” Noctis said the first morning of spring.

Outside the window they could see weeds and stones that had accumulated during the winter all scattered around their still wet farmyard. It wasn’t as bad as when they’d arrived, and with upgraded tools they could clear out the bigger pieces of debris, but Luna was not looking forward to any of it.

“Welp.” Prompto handed them both a plate of eggs and bacon. “Vacations over, time to work.”

Luna reluctantly headed out with the hoe and got to work blocking off sections for the spring seeds. Noctis went off buy the new seeds for the year while Prompto broke down the giant boulders and cut the grass that littered their farming patch. Prompto’s sketch showed that they were blocking off double of what they’d done the previous year, with vegetable patches going straight from their house all the way down to the entrance from the forest and a long potato patch running along the fence that block off the livestock. Once everything was turned Prompto went through and placed the sprinklers at ideal spots. Over the course of the winter he’d made about ten sprinklers which he used to water the potatoes, and the patches further from their house. A final contender was brought up when Prompto had gone out to the traveling cart during their lunch break and arrived with a single coffee bean. The little block he set up for it went near the entrance to the village right next to the seller’s bin, and separate from the rest of the vegetables they planted until late at night.

The next morning Luna woke up feeling sore deep down into her bones, her arms and lower back were more sore then they’d been the night before when they got to bed at around midnight. Which was to be expected. Hopefully the next day she’d wake up on the mend, but for that they she had to be up with a heavy watering can to get the crops not watered by the sprinklers. 

“Hey Meatloaf.” Noctis crooned from the animal side. It was his turn to milk and Meatloaf had managed to wander near the fence. Luna focused on watering the vegetables not near the sprinklers, listening to Noctis sweet talk the cows.

She didn’t pay much attention to Noctis working as she had her own work to attend to. Some weeds were already trying to make their move towards the vegetables and she had to bend to yank them out before they could get too close. She was interrupted from this when Noctis called her and Prompto over.

“Do you think she’s sick?” Noctis asked. The milk pail was completely empty, even after both she and Prompto made attempts to milk her. The cow was completely dry.

“Perhaps she’s just tired?” Luna said. “She was fed, correct?”

“Yeah, saw her eating hay when I went to milk her yesterday.” Prompto said. “But she didn’t produce a lot yesterday.”

“She didn’t produce a lot when I milk her too.”

“Guys! We gotta communicate better.”

“Well what about you? You didn’t say anything.”

“Yeah well… well… Let’s just get Marnie.”

Marnie made free house calls to people in Pelican Town only because everyone who had animals got them from her. So getting her out to check on Meatloaf wasn’t a hassle. She arrived with a small kit of equipment to check Meatloaf’s health. The entire check up took about half an hour and returned a confusing clean bill of health.

“She’s just a little old dear.” Marnie said. “She can’t produce milk like she used to.”

“Makes sense.” Prompto said. “We did get older ones.”

Marnie reached into her bag and handed a few pamphlets to Prompto, “I recommend Tristen’s, he’s the most humane. I have some amaranth I can see, make sure she has a happy few days.”

“Thanks Marnie, we’ll think about it.”

Marnie grabbed her tote bag and hurried off to her next appointment.

“See, you’re healthy Meatloaf.” Noctis said, patting her old head affectionately, “We get to keep you.”

“Actually we’re gonna have to butcher her.”

Luna wished she could appreciate the horrified look Noctis’ face twisted in, but her face twisted into a similar horrified expression as well. SHe had not expected such a horrific suggestion to come from Prompto of all people. She looked over at Meatloaf, happily chewing grass completely unaware of dark conversation they’d found themselves in.

“W-what?” Noctis whispered. “You can’t do that!” He said much louder.

“She’s not producing, we can’t afford to keep a cow that’s not producing anymore.”

“She’s not a thing she’s a she!”

“I said that!”

“Would you say we should butcher Strawberry?” Noctis yelled. “What about Courel!”

“No cause those are pets. Meatloaf’s a dairy cow.” Prompto stated, “Also why’d you guys name her Meatloaf?”

It was rare for any of them to have a serious argument, disagreements came with a relationship but arguing was something they avoided. That day they argued. Luna wished she could say she was the mediator, but she immediately took Noctis’ side and they definitely ganged up on Prompto. It was not her brightest moment, and she immediately felt guilty when Prompto stomped off to give Courel a walk.

Luna felt a deep ball of guilt form in her stomach immediately after he left. She could tell Noctis did too, but he was being a bit pigheaded about it as he began mixing cocoa powder into a cake batter. Strawberry bumped her head against Luna’s ankle until relented and scooped the cat up into her arms. After wallowing for a bit she headed out to check on the chickens and gather eggs.

Prompto didn’t return until late in the evening when everyone had calmed down a bit and they weren’t at each other’s throats, but they didn’t really tackle the obvious until the next morning where Noctis looked about as somber as she felt.

“Why can’t we keep her as a pet?” Noctis asked. His questioning was teary and sad rather than angry as it had been before.

“Because it’s too expensive. And she’ll take up room that we could save for another, younger cow.”

“The others are just as old.” Luna said. “What’ll happen to them?”

“The same, but they’re not as old so we still have time.”

Luna sighed, “We should give her a good last few days then.”

“Someone should go buy some amaranth from Marnie then.”

Luna wanted to get her mind off of the inevitable so she focused on the junimos. As they waited for their crops to grow she looked over what they had and what they needed for the gifts bundle. She saved a truffle and fried an egg to finish one of the sets, which yielded three pink cakes that they did not need, but would definitely eat anyway. She and Noctis took an evening to find shells on the bach and give those to the junimos. Prompto bought a rabbit’s foot from the traveling cart for another one which netted them five gold bars another day.

As Luna attempted to haul the bars back to the home she passed by the bus stop, which did not have a bus parked near it. Instead, parked on the side of the road, sat a very modern, black car with a Crown City license plate.

Luna sprinted back home, heart pounding. Worried, scared. They could not afford to get caught. Not with the war still going on. She barrelled into their home, glad to see that the both of them were happily sitting on the couch playing Space Warriors 5.

“Turn that off!” She ordered. They were both shocked enough by her sudden entrance that they immediately turned the system off, turned off the lights, then pulled all the blinds shut.

“What happened?” Noctis asked, once the house was fully secured.

“I saw a black car from Insomnia.” She said. “It had a crown city logo on the plate.”

“Crap.” Noctis sighed, “It’s probably someone important. Like a senator or something.”

“Well they might not come out here.” Prompto said. “They might not be here for you. I heard the mayor say they were trying to get more tourists passing by. Maybe they’re on vacation.”

“What would a bunch of senators royalty need here in Stardew Valley Prompto?” Luna asked.

Prompto shrugged, “Maybe they came to visit Gus’ saloon?”

“Somehow I doubt that.”

They kept watch for intruders through the from windows for at least an hour before something happened. Luna was nervously knitting while Noctis had raided the fridge for some ice cream, so it was Prompto who saw Lewis bring another man onto the farm. Prompto didn’t recognize this man, but he did recognize the uniform and he immediately dragged Noctis from the fridge to take a look.

“Shit. That’s Nyx.” Noctis said. “Fucking Nyx.”

Lewis and Nyx walked past the newly planted vegetables to head up and knock on their door. The three of them held their breath, leaning close to the door. Hoping and praying neither of them came in.

“Hm, I guess they might not be home.” Lewis said. His voice was clear even through the door.

“Do you know when they’re normally around?”

“Perhaps you could come back in the morning? They’ll probably be around then. Where will you be staying?”

“In Seagull town.”

“Oh, well that’s not too far with a car.”

“Yeah, I’ll be back in the morning.”

The two of them left, allowing Luna to finally breath. But it wasn’t a breath of relief. She felt trapped, like they were locked in a box.

“Well, we have twelve hours before he’s back.” Prompto said. “We need to do some digging.”

The saloon was always lively on Friday nights when most of the village was there. Luna had planned on sleeping early given the fact that they had to be up early in the mornings, but she found herself at the saloon with Prompto and Noctis. Despite the crowd it was easy to pick out Lewis lounging near the bar.

“I’ll go talk to him.” Luna said.

“That’s probably smart.” Prompto said. “You’ll get it out of him.”

Yes. She would. Luna marched over to Lewis, who seemed to be enjoying the music from the jukebox and watching people socialize. Luna was determined and expected resistance, but was thrown a bit off guard when Lewis noticed her approach and spoke first.

“Ah! I was looking for you three today.” He said.

“We saw. Noctis woke from his nap when you left with someone.” Lewis didn’t seem like he was intentionally hiding something, Luna tried not to give away her cards too early and be aggressive. “We value our privacy Mr. Lewis. So we were concerned when we saw a strange person with you on our property.”

Lewis blinked, “I apologize, I thought nothing of it at the time.” He said sincerely. “That young man arrived asking for where he could buy Carbuncle Farms beer in a large quantity so I decided to walk him over to you to discuss a transaction.”

“Our beer?”

“Yes.”

“... Well did he say how much?”

Lewis shrugged, “I think he wanted about five kegs. That’s all he told me.”

“Five kegs…” She tried to think back to Prompto’s production. That would probably put them back a bit in terms of getting the beer out to their contracts, but Prompto probably had extra lying around somewhere. It wasn’t an order so big that they couldn’t fill it.

But that’s not what she should be focusing on.

“Mr. Lewis.”

“Yes?”

“We would appreciate it if you aided us a bit and help us find out what exactly this man would need and let us know. You see, we plan on leaving early and arriving home late at night for the next few days. If you can leave us a note of some sort then we can deliver this man’s order at the shop and he can pick it up.”

Lewis nodded, “I love hearing how hard you kids are working. When he comes by tomorrow I’ll let him know.”

Neither Noctis, nor Prompto, quite believed her.

“That cannot be why he’s here. What’s the coincidence?” Noctis said on their walk back. “He knows we’re here.”

“But who would tell him that we ran this farm? The only people who associate us with the name of the farm live here.”

“And the many people we’ve invited to eat our food.”

Luna’s stomach squeezed. “Oh…”

“We’ll have to figure out how they tracked us down later, and only if he really tracked us down.” Prompto said. “If he’s really just here for beer then let’s fill his order and not talk to him.”

Luna fell into bed that night but couldn’t sleep. All she could think about were the various ways their cover had been blown. Should they have screened their customers? She couldn’t think of anyone recognizing them out there, especially since she hadn’t recognized anyone they’d had over. No one spoke of any job that would link them to Niflheim let alone Lucis.

Worry ate at her stomach through the night and into the morning when their alarm went off and they had to get up and get to work. Luna picked at her breakfast, some eggs baked in a tomato sauce, and reluctantly ate small bites that morning. Noctis was the opposite of her, eating double what he normally did as he looked out the window. Prompto had gone out early to start bottling a test brew.

Prompto’s brewing area was inside a cabin along with his desk and work area, but he had to wheel kegs outside to actually bottle anything. He typically did so by sitting on the side of the house furthest from the path to the village. It was only this fact that kept him hidden from view from the person who approached the area early that morning.

If Luna had been of clearer mind she would have noticed that Nyx casually strolled onto their property rather than march in as if he were ready for a fight. But her mind wasn’t so clear, and she immediately began to panic at the sight of him. Noctis ducked under the counter and Luna hid behind the completely solid door.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Prompto scrambling to hide behind the house, which there was no door nor windows he could jump through without being noticed. Of the three of them he was easily the most vulnerable.

“He noticed the beer!” Noctis stage whispered. Luna peaked out to see that Nyx was looking over the filling station. Prompto had half a case filled with bottled beer and the line was still filled with beer going towards the spout and the various items Prompto used to sanitize the bottles and keep the area clean. Nyx looked over them, then turned around to scan the rest of the farm, then back again before seemingly being satisfied that no one was there.

But he didn’t leave. Luna held her breath as he walked over and knocked on the door three times. She saw Noctis sink further under the counter.

Another knock. Luna’s nails dug into the palm of her hand. They waited through five minutes of silence before Luna dared to peek out from behind the door and look through their window, looking to see that Nyx had indeed begun walking away and was near the exit.

They waited another five minutes before finally standing from their hiding spaces, feeling very little relief from a narrow miss and not looking forward to working in their open fields where they could now get caught at any time.

“We should probably talk to Lewis.” Noctis said.

Lewis typically wandered throughout town during the day, so pinning him down was a challenge. Luna sent Prompto out to investigate in hopes that he was a bit less recognizable compared to herself or Noctis. She sat on lookout, checking both entrances to their property while Noctis quickly watered what they needed and filled up the rest of the beer bottles for Prompto.

At around noon Prompto came back home with a small list.

“Lewis did talk to him.” Prompto said. “After he came by, and I guess explained to him that he shouldn’t come here unannounced. He also wants three kegs of the special white, a keg of the special ale, and one of the stout. Hopefully by the end of the next week…”

“He’s going to be here for a full week?”

“I dunno. Lewis said that he was ordered to just get this beer. You know, we really need to invest in a phone or some sort of mail service if we think this might happen again.”

“A mail service? Isn’t that just going to be more work?” Noctis asked.

“Look if it keeps people away then it’s worth it. We should also make sure to screen the people who come here to eat. We’ve gone real laissez faire about this.”

“We have.” Luna admitted. “Is he coming back?”

“I told Lewis to let him know that we’ll drop it off at the store, Pierre said it would be fine to store it and he’ll make sure we get paid if we can’t be there for the pick up. So we should just get it out as fast as possible and get him out of here.”

“How long do you think it’ll take?”

“A couple of days.”

A couple of days. It felt a bit longer than it should have been. Luna didn’t like to nag people, but she did find herself more involved in Prompto’s work then usual as she kept an eye on the entire process. She helped him wheel the last keg out by Wednesday of the next week and then went to inform Lewis immediately who contacted Nyx on their behalf. Once that was done she began designing a mail order form to submit to the various newspapers and magazines in the area.

Meanwhile Prompto was also busy with other arrangements.

“Goodbye Meatloaf.” Noctis said, through several ugly sniffles. Prompto had arranged for Meatloaf to be picked up and sent to the slaughter house in Seagull Town. She held out the last of the amaranth for Meatloaf to eat while Noctis tearfully hugged her.

“She’s going to a better place guys.” Prompto said.

“Awglufyu!” Noctis said with his face buried in Meatloaf’s side.

The men herded Meatloaf onto the trailer, then Prompto climbed into the cab to head down to the slaughterhouse. She and Noctis sadly waved goodbye to their oldest cow, Luna struggled to keep the tears inside.

“Come on, let’s go fishing.” Luna said. “Take out minds off of it.”

Noctis continued to sob, but followed her as she grabbed their fishing lines and headed on out to the ocean. By the time they cast their lines Noctis had managed to stop crying and could at least focus a little bit on fishing, pulling up a few herring for dinner.

They had a busy harvest day in the morning when whole rows of garlic had finally matured and needed to be replanted, while the trees were already weighed down with apricots and cherries. As the first harvest of the season it was physically demanding. Luna had to use all of the muscles she let fatigue over the winter to pull up garlic and sew new seeds while Noctis spent the whole day picking fruit. Their combined efforts filled the box, the jam pots, and all of their current restaurant orders, but they had a lot leftover. Luna spent part of her lunch stringing up on their front porch so it could be dried.

It was a long day. So she was happy to finally see the end of it and go inside to find a nice meal of garlic mashed potatoes, clear soup, and… meat.

Noctis connected the dots a bit more quickly then she did.

“Prom! Y-you can’t! Why???” He yelled. “Ohmygodit’smeatloaf.”

“No it’s not, it’s brisket.”

Luna sighed as Noctis delved into another round of sniffles at the sight of his favorite cow, now tonight's dinner.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the three of them. A treaty was being signed.

Stardew Valley had very little communication between its citizens and the capital. They did not know of the civil unrest that had happened when the emperor had died, nor the parties that sprung up afterwards in their attempt to take power and the politics that surrounded such actions. They did not know that the victor, while controversial in many matters, had been one for financial conservatism and had opposed the military expansion of Niflheim given its toll of the Niflheim pocketbook.

They were also unaware that the beer they sold was one of many delicacies served at the banquet commemorating the occasion. Nor did they know that the junimos were the ones working tirelessly behind the scenes, leaving damning political proof on the front doors of reporters, sabotaging transportation of unwanted officials so they could not participate in votes, and destroying documents that could have impeded progress otherwise. All in an effort to bring about that day where Niflheim and Lucis formally declared a real peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Noctis just got mentally beat up this chapter. It's funny, but also sad. Mostly funny imo.

**Author's Note:**

> If you've got ideas for simple tasks that any of them would inevitably mess up please let me know. I just want to write all three of them trying to do incredibly simple tasks and horrifically failing at them all.
> 
> Also check me out at ithinkicanwritesometimes over on tumblr or @LukasandTea on twitter!


End file.
